OREANDA-NEWS  On 02 October was announced, that Belarus’ industrial output rose 13.1% on the year in January-August to 86.563 trillion Belarusian rubles (Br), an official with Belarus’ Statistics Ministry said.

Engineering and metalworking companies’ output rose 13.9% on the year in the period to 17.625 trillion rubles. The output of fuel companies went up 10.6% on the year in January-August to 19.895 trillion rubles.

Chemical and petrochemical companies’ production increased 9.3% to 10.999 trillion rubles, and ferrous metallurgy companies’ output rose 6.5% to 3.88 trillion rubles. Electrical power companies’ output increased 10.4% on the year to 4.483 trillion rubles.

Construction materials companies’ output rose 13.3% on the year to 3.031 trillion rubles, and woodworking and pulp-and-paper companies’ production amounted to 2.493 trillion rubles, up 12.9% on the year in January-August.

Belarus’ light industry output remained flat at 2.49 trillion rubles, while food industry’s output went up 10.2% to 10.281 trillion rubles.

Return on sales amounted to 18.6% in January-July 2008, up from 13.1% in January-July 2007.

Net profit of Belarus’ industrial companies rose 120% on the year to 6.2 trillion rubles in effective prices in January-July 2008 with producer price index (PPI) rising 12.2% in the period.

There were 276 loss-making manufacturers in the period, with net losses estimated at 160.9 billion rubles.