Barys Zhaliba: Belarusian Authorities Are Bad In Economy

Prices will continue to grow, along with the growth of the dollar.

The American currency rises in price against the Belarusian ruble for 12 consecutive days. Analysts believe that by the end of the year the BYN will continue to fall along with the RUR due to the fact that the West will impose new sanctions on Russia.

Economist Barys Zhaliba told Radio Racyja about this.

- The dollar exchange rate and prices in our country are interrelated, therefore, naturally, after the growth of the US currency, prices will also rise. Another thing is that no one knows what level of devaluation to expect. Probably, it will directly depent on the harshness of the new sanctions against Russia. But in any case, there is nothing good about devaluing the ruble. Even the Ministry of Finance has calculated how many losses are borne by enterprises and the budget, even from 1 percent of devaluation.

- The Russian ruble at the fall entails a Belarusian currency in the abyss. Is this a normal situation?

- It’s absolutely abnormal. The Belarusian leadership has said for many years that it wants to diversify exports. They voiced the following formula: a third of exports goes to Russia, a third - to Europe, and a third - to other countries. But nothing happens yet. More than half of the exports are still tied to Russia, and hence this is our currency basket, where 50 percent is occupied by the Russian ruble. And all this tying once again harms the Belarusian economy.