OREANDA-NEWS. On 04 May 2009 was announced, that Belarus’ industrial output went down 4.5% on the year in January-March to 28.4 trillion Belarusian rubles (Br), an official with the National Statistics Committee told.

Engineering and metalworking companies’ output decreased 22.1% on the year in the period to 5.76 trillion rubles. The output of fuel companies went up 6.7% on the year in January-March to 5.075 trillion rubles.

Chemical and petrochemical companies’ production increased 28.2% to 2.795 trillion rubles, while ferrous metallurgy companies’ output increased 2.7% to 1.062 trillion rubles. Electrical power companies’ output decreased 10.9% on the year to 2.486 trillion rubles.

Construction materials companies’ output decreased 11.2% on the year to 1.041 trillion rubles, and woodworking and pulp-and-paper companies’ production amounted to 890 billion rubles, down 22.2% on the year in January-March.

Belarus’ light industry output was down 13.8% to 990 billion rubles, while food industry’s output went up 0.9% to 4.27 trillion rubles.

Return on sales amounted to 7.7% in January-February 2009, down from 14.2% in January-February 2008.

There were 1,706 loss-making manufacturers in the period, 16.8% of the total number, with net losses estimated at 803.4 billion rubles, up 5 times.

Net profit of Belarus’ industrial companies fell 61% on the year to 803.4 billion rubles in effective prices in January-February 2009 with producer price index (PPI) rising 20.7% in the period.