OREANDA-NEWS. On 27 March 2009 was announced, that Belarus’ industrial output edged down 2.3% on the year in January-February to 18.1 trillion Belarusian rubles (Br), an official with the National Statistics Committee told.

Engineering and metalworking companies’ output decreased 20.1% on the year in the period to 3.647 trillion rubles. The output of fuel companies went up 4% on the year in January-February to 3.174 trillion rubles.

Chemical and petrochemical companies’ production increased 27.6% to 1.613 trillion rubles, while ferrous metallurgy companies’ output decreased 1.4% to 686 billion rubles. Electrical power companies’ output decreased 11.2% on the year to 1.665 trillion rubles.

Construction materials companies’ output decreased 15.9% on the year to 626 billion rubles, and woodworking and pulp-and-paper companies’ production amounted to 550 billion rubles, down 21.3% on the year in January.

Belarus’ light industry output was down 16% to 616 billion rubles, while food industry’s output went up 2.8% to 2.7 trillion rubles.

Return on sales amounted to 8.1% in January 2009, down from 16.5% in January 2008.

There were 624 loss-making manufacturers in the period, 30.4% of the total number, with net losses estimated at 200.4 billion rubles, up 5.6 times.

Net profit of Belarus’ industrial companies fell 17.3% on the year to 113.6 billion rubles in effective prices in January 2009 with producer price index (PPI) rising 19.9% in the period.