OREANDA-NEWS. On 26 August 2008 was announced, that Russia accounted for 49% of Belarus’ foreign trade in January-June 2008, the Statistics Ministry said in a press release.

Other key trade partners are the Netherlands with 9.2% of Belarus’ trade turnover in the period, Ukraine with 6.9%, Germany with 4.5%, Poland with 3.9%, Latvia with 3.1%, the UK with 2.6%, China with 2%, Brazil with 1.7%, and Italy with 1.4%.

Russia accounted for 32.3% of Belarus’ exports, the rest of the CIS accounted for 11.7%, the EU for 45.3%, and foreign states outside the EU for 10.7%. Russia accounted for 63.8% of Belarus’ imports in January-June 2008, the rest of the CIS for 6.1%, the EU for 19.2% and foreign countries outside the EU for 10.9%.

Trade between Belarus and Russia showed a U.S. USD 6.852 billion deficit for Belarus in the period, up from USD 3.348 billion in the first six months of 2007.

Belarus exported its products to 128 countries of the world, while imports were from 157 states.

Core inflation is the key benchmark for monetary strategies; many countries of the world have their central banks calculate the core consumer price index [in Belarus it is calculated by the Statistics Ministry].