OREANDA-NEWS  On 17 December was announced, that Belarus needs to take measures to increase sales of Belarusian-made products domestically, and temporary import cuts may be considered an efficient instrument, Economy Minister Nikolai Zaichenko told an enlarged meeting of the Council of Ministers commenting on measures to reduce overstocks.

As of December 1, 2008, stocks of finished products were at 5.2 trillion Belarusian rubles (Br), a rise by 700 billion rubles in November alone.

“Stocks make up 63.5% of the monthly output, which is much higher than the target for this year,” Zaichenko said.

According to him, the weak demand for Belarusian goods is especially detrimental to ferrous metallurgy, mechanical engineering, the chemical and petrochemical industry, and light industry.

Under the circumstances, it is necessary to increase supplies of Belarusian goods to the home market. “The Trade Ministry, Minsk City Administration and Belkoosoyuz need to provide priority settlements for domestic goods. Traders must be encouraged and rewarded for selling Belarusian goods that need to compete with imports,” the minister said.

He also said imports of some consumer goods may be temporarily reduced to help sales of Belarusian-made products.

Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky told the session the government might agree to apply measures introduced by resolution #1,834 [exports of products at prices below production costs] to sales on the home market.