Belarus’ Economy Minister: our country reached positive balance in foreign trade with Russia

Belarus’ Economy Minister Yuri Chebotar told reporters about this on the sidelines of the Supreme State Council in St. Petersburg

In particular, he stressed that trade turnover between Belarus and Russia is growing steadily, “We supplied maximum export volumes last year and the year before. We’re reaching record levels – a 12 percent increase in our exports to Russia. However, Russia is also expanding its export supplies to our country. We’ve reached a positive balance in foreign trade with our main partner, which, of course, pleases us.”

According to official data, for January-November 2023, our exports to Russia totalled $23.02bn, our imports stood at $21.27bn. In 2022, the surplus in foreign trade made up $127.4m.

As already reported, the President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, said during the Supreme State Council meeting that at year-end 2023, Belarus and Russia will update the historical maximum of trade in goods and services, “Vladimir Putin named a figure of over $40bn for ten months. However, if we take the year as a whole (covering both goods and services), it will be approximately $54bn – a historical maximum.”