Page 19 - BELRptNov18

5.2 Balance of payments, current account
Belarus -Trade 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Jan-Nov 2017
Trade: External balance on goods and -645 2,935 -2,378 -606 60 -44 391 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 25,876
Trade: Goods imports (BoP) (USD mn) 44,394 45,009 41,134 38,334 28,307 25,611 28,213
Trade: Current account balance (USD mn) -5,053 -1,862 -7,567 -5,228 -1,831 -1,675 -347 (Jan-Sep)
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
Russia remains one of Belarus’s main export markets and mutual trade between Moscow and Minsk could reach $50bn , Russian President Vladimir Putin said on October 12. "We are able to bring mutual trade to the $50bn level," he said. "To compare, I just visited India with population of 1.1bn people, whose trade turnover with Russia is roughly $10bn," Putin added. For comparison, Russia’s trade with China is likely to top $100bn this year, whereas its trade with Ukraine has fallen to about $11bn. According to President, the Russian-Belarusian trade turnover increased almost by one quarter to $32.4bn last year, and gained another 14.5% in January-August period of 2018. "Russian investment into Belarus has exceeded $4bn, while Belarusian investment was $716.8mn," he added.
Belarus-China trade is expected to exceed $3.5bn by the end of 2018.
Belarusian Economy Minister Dmitry Krutoi made the statement in an interview with the Chinese news agency Xinhua, BelTA has learned. The economy minister remarked that in January-August 2018 Belarus-China trade totalled $2.3bn.
Minsk expects increase of Belarusian-Ukrainian turnover to $5bn in 2018.
Belarus and Ukraine may increase mutual commodity turnover to $5bn in 2018, Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Lyashenko said. "Positive dynamics of trade and economic relations between our countries was observed in the past few years. We have managed to stop the fall that was in 2013 and resume growth," Lyashenko said at a plenary session of the first forum of Belarusian and Ukrainian regions in Gomel on Friday. The amount of bilateral trade reached $4.6bn in 2017 and went up 20% against 2016, he said.
Ukraine and Belarus could "easily" double trade turnover between the two countries to $10bn , Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said during a forum in Gomel on October 26. According to Poroshenko, Belarus is a
19 BELARUS Country Report November 2018 www.intellinews.com