OREANDA-NEWS. September 14, 2009. The chief economic problems of Belarus are insufficient industrial output growth, foreign trade gap and retail turnover, Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky reported to President Alexander Lukashenko late.

Sidorsky noted the adverse impact of the global downturn on the Belarusian economy and the entire region.

Belarusian industrial output decreased 3.9% on the year in January-July. Only the Agriculture Ministry, Belneftekhim, Belgospischeprom and Belbiopharm managed to secure a rise in output.

Enterprises accountable to the Industry Ministry reported production volume 23.6% below last year’s level, compared to 17.8% in the first quarter.

The government set the Industry Ministry a task to narrow the gap to at least 18% in 2009.

Belarus’ foreign trade deficit widened to U.S. USD 3.1 billion, with exports falling 45.4% to USD 10.6 billion, and imports going down 33% to USD 13.7 billion.

The government believes exports might increase through efforts to expand sales geography. In the first half of the year, Belarus started exports to 11 new countries.

The Industry Ministry was instructed to create 23 new assembling facilities in the CIS, and also in China, India, Iran, Venezuela, Libya, Sudan and Syria.

Belarus’ retail sales expanded only 2.7% in January-July, mostly due to reductions in households’ buying activity and smaller share of durables in overall purchases.

One measure to encourage domestic demand is lending of lower-income households on soft terms, under presidential ordinance #371.