OREANDA-NEWS. October 3, 2012. Belarus’ vodka and hard liquor output increased 13% on the year in January-August 2012 to 9.841 million decaliters, an official with Belarus’ National Statistics Committee told.

In August alone vodka and hard liquor output increased 9.2% on the year and 62.1% month on month.

As of September 1, 2012 inventories of vodka and hard liquor stood at 1.068 million dal (86.8% of the average monthly output), up 84.5% on the month.

Vodka sales increased 4.4% on the year in January-August 2012 to 7.986 million decaliters. The share of vodka in the sales of alcoholic beverages in absolute alcohol terms in Belarus grew by 5.4 percentage points from January-August 2012 to 49.6%.