Page 16 - BELRptMar19

5.0 External Sector & Trade 5.1 External sector overview
In 2018 Belarus' export of merchandise and services surged by 14.9% over 2017 to total $42bn , according to National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB).
Belarus' trade in merchandise and services totalled $83.3bn, which was up by 14.1% up from 2017. Export amounted to $42bn, with import going over $41.3bn (up 13.3%).
The surplus of the foreign trade in merchandise and services amounted to $694.4mn ($82.9mn in 2017).
Merchandise trade rose by 14.6% to $69.2bn. Merchandise export went up by 15.9% to $33.2bn, with import up by 13.4% to $35.9bn. The deficit of merchandise trade reached $2.65bn (almost $3bn in 2017).
The export to the EEU countries increased by $0.2bn, to the EU member states by $2.3bn , and to the distant countries and other states by $1.9bn.
The EEU accounted for 41.2% of Belarus' total export volume (46.7% in 2017), the EU 30.2% (26.8%), other countries 28.6% (26.5%).
I n 2018 Belarus' merchandise export rose by 15.3% over 2017 to reach $33.7bn , Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei said at the board meeting of the ministry, BelTA has learned. “We performed exceptionally well in 2017 and managed to maintain momentum throughout 2018 beating the target set by the head of state,” he said. Vladimir Makei welcomed positive trends in trade: in money terms the growth made up $4.5bn. Almost 60% of the growth was generated by products not related to crude oil, petroleum products and fertilizers, which shows that the structure of merchandise export has been
16 BELARUS Country Report March 2019 www.intellinews.com