BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
17/04/2009
News: In January-February Belarus' Foreign Trade Sees a Slump by 38.3% to $7 billion
April 17 2009 (FoodBizDaily) - In January-February 2009, Belarus' foreign trade witnessed a decline in goods and services by 38.3% over the same period to $7 billion, BelTA reported as having been informed through a statement from the National Statistics Committee.
There was a fall in Belarus' exports by 45% to $3.1 billion, and the country's imports dipped by 31.8% to $3.9 billion. In the period of January-February 2009, Belarus' foreign trade deficit touched a total of $815 million. This year's projection shows that the foreign trade deficit is estimated to be in the range of $1.47-1.5 billion. The merchandise trade showed a deficit of $1.0374 million, and the total amount of the surplus of the foreign trade in services was $222.4 million.
The National Statistics Committee was of the opinion that decline in the foreign trade could be attributed to the slump in the prices for both exported and imported goods, coupled with the deterioration in trade in real terms caused by the world economic downturn. Over the period of January-February 2008, the average prices of export diminished by 29.3% and the average prices of import went down by 16.3%. As far as the volumes of exports and imports are concerned, the actual quantity of export experienced a reduction by 26.2% and that of import by 18.9%.
In the month of January 2009, there was a total trade worth $6.3 billion in goods, with export reaching the high figure of $2.6 billion and import touching the figure of $3.7 billion. In actual prices, in comparison with the same period of last year, there was a fall in the export of commodities by 47.8% and the imports of commodities registered a decline by 32.1%.
The chief source of the foreign trade deficit was the export and import operations done with intermediate goods (raw materials, energy resources, components). Intermediate products valued at $2650,9 million were imported by Belarus (38.7% down on January-February 2008) and intermediate products with value amounting to $1828,6 million were exported (49.9% down). In the case of energy products, the deficit of the foreign trade recorded an amount of $473,2 million.
In the period of January-February 2009, a decrease in demand led to a decline in the export of investment goods from Belarus. As far as this commodity group is concerned, this proved to be one of the causes of the $165.5 million deficit in the trade. In January 2009, the total percentage of the export of road and construction machines came to only 14.2% in contrast to that of the period January-February 2008: export of trucks and truck tractors was 21.8%, the same of special-purpose vehicles touched the figure of 18.5%, export of trailers and semitrailers recorded a total of 19.7%, and the same of tractors was 54.4%. At the same time, there was a considerable rise in the import of metal-working machine-tools, machines, and mechanisms for ground work, air compressors, and a number of other equipment.
In the case of food, in the period January-February 2009, the surplus of the foreign trade came to a total of $71.4 million (a rise by $27.8 million when compared to the same point in the year 2008). In the meantime, export of food experienced a decline by 12.8% in cost terms. In particular, there was a reduction in the export of powdered milk and condensed milk, frozen beef, canned fish, sugar, and cheese and cottage cheese. As a counter measure, Belarus imported less quantity of vegetable oil, cereals, frozen fish, and a number of other products. In non-foods, the deficit of the foreign trade touched the figure of $180.8 million.
As far as the trade of non-foods is concerned, the period of January-February 2009 witnessed the country's foreign trade in services amounting to $717.6 million (79.2% as against the figure in January-February 2008). The trade amount for the export of services came to $470 million (78.5%) and the same for import was registered as $247.6 million (80.7%).
Source:
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