Page 16 - BELRptDec18

5.2 Balance of payments, current account
Belarus -Trade 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Trade: External balance on goods and -645 2,935 -2,378 -606 60 -44 72.4 services (USD mn)
Trade: External balance on goods and -1.04 4.47 -3.15 -0.77 0.11 -0.09 / services (% of GDP)
Trade: Goods exports (BoP) (USD mn) 40,928 45,574 36,540 35,423 26,164 23,100 28,657
Trade: Goods imports (BoP) (USD mn) 44,394 45,009 41,134 38,334 28,307 25,611 31,576
Trade: Current account balance (USD mn) -5,053 -1,862 -7,567 -5,228 -1,831 -1,675 -931.4
Trade: Current account to GDP (%)
-8.2 -2.8 -10.0 -6.6 -3.2 -3.5 -5.3
5.2.1 Import/export dynamics
Belarus was Russia's fourth biggest trading partner and the biggest in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in January-September 2018, according to the Russian Federal Customs Service. In January-September 2018 the Belarusian-Russian trade amounted to $26.403bn, an increase of 13.9% over the same period in 2017, according to the Russian customs. The leader in Russian trade is China with a trade turnover of $78.7bn in the period, up by 27.8% y/y, followed by Germany ($44.1bn, 24.7%) and then the Netherlands ($33.7bn, 15.5%). Belarus is ahead of Italy, Turkey, US, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Poland, Kazakhstan and France in terms of the monetary volume of trade with Russia. In 2017 Belarus was also the fourth biggest trading partner of Russia among all countries of the world and the first among the CIS countries.
Belarusian agricultural exports to China are expected to double to around $100mn this year , representatives of the Belarusian Agriculture and Food Minister Leonid Zayats said, BelTA reported on November 8. In January-September 2018 Belarus sold $52mn worth of food to China. The top sellers included dairy products, which export rose by nine times from January-September 2017. Belarusian food sells well in China. The Belarusian Agriculture and Food Ministry sent a delegation in Shanghai for the International Import Expo, that includes the Hongqiao International Economic and Trade Forum that was held as part of the expo. During the forum Zayats held negotiations with China and says he has done deals worth $100mn this year. The expo has once again confirmed it. Aleksei Bogdanov, Head of the Central Office for Foreign Economic Activities of the Belarusian Agriculture and Food Ministry, said: “Our exposition, which represents the majority of Belarusian dairy and meat companies as well as bakeries, is very popular with regular visitors and representatives of companies.” A third train from Belarus carrying dairy products arrived at Chongqing during the forum, carrying 41 containers weighing a total of 1,025 tonnes. According to Bogdanov, work to
16 BELARUS Country Report December 2018 www.intellinews.com