Economía - descripción: Belarus has seen little structural reform since 1995, when President LUKASHENKO launched the country on the path of "market socialism." In keeping with this policy, LUKASHENKO re-imposed administrative controls over prices and currency exchange rates and expanded the state's right to intervene in the management of private enterprise. In addition to the burdens imposed by high inflation, businesses have been subject to pressure on the part of central and local governments, e.g., arbitrary changes in regulations, numerous rigorous inspections, and retroactive application of new business regulations prohibiting practices that had been legal. Further economic problems are two consecutive bad harvests, 1998-99, and persistent trade deficits. Close relations with Russia, possibly leading to reunion, color the pattern of economic developments. For the time being, Belarus remains self-isolated from the West and its open-market economies.

Producto Bruto Interno (PBI): purchasing power parity - $55.2 billion (1999 est.)

PBI - Indice de Incremento real: 1.5% (1999 est.)

PBI - por capital: purchasing power parity - $5,300 (1999 est.)

PBI - Composición por Sector:
agriculture: 23%
industry: 28%
services: 49% (1998 est.)

Población bajo linea de pobertad: 22% (1995 est.)

Ingreso en casa o porcentage de consumción:
lowest 10%: 4.9%
highest 10%: 19.4% (1993)

Indice de Inflación (precios del consumidor): 295% (1999 est.)

Fuerza Laboral: 4.3 million (1998)

Fuerza Laboral - por ocupación: industry and construction NA%, agriculture and forestry NA%, services NA%

Indice de desempleo: 2.3% officially registered unemployed (December 1998); large number of underemployed workers

Presupuesto:
revenues: $4 billion
expenditures: $4.1 billion, including capital expenditures of $180 million (1997 est.)

Industrias: metal-cutting machine tools, tractors, trucks, earth movers, motorcycles, TV sets, chemical fibers, fertilizer, textiles, radios, refrigerators

Industrial production growth rate: 8% (1999 est.)

Electricidad - Producción: 21.893 billion kWh (1998)

Electricidad - producción por fuente:
fossil fuel: 99.89%
hydro: 0.11%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1998)

Electricidad - consumción: 28.66 billion kWh (1998)

Electricidad - exportaciones: 2.3 billion kWh (1998)

Electricidad - importaciones: 10.6 billion kWh (1998)

Agricultura - productos: grain, potatoes, vegetables, sugar beets, flax; beef, milk

Exportaciones: $6 billion (f.o.b., 1999)

Exporationes - comodidades: machinery and equipment, chemicals, metals, textiles, foodstuffs

Exportaciones - socios: Russia 66%, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Lithuania (1998)

Importaciones: $6.4 billion (c.i.f., 1999)

Importaciones - comodidades: mineral products, machinery and equipment, metals, chemicals, foodstuffs

Importaciones - socios: Russia 54%, Ukraine, Germany, Poland, Lithuania (1998)

Deuda - externa: $1.1 billion (1998 est.)

Ayuda economica - recipiente: $194.3 million (1995)

Moneda: Belarusian rubel (BR)

Indice de intercambio: Belarusian rubels per US$1 - 730,000 (15 December 1999), 139,000 (25 January 1999), 46,080 (2nd qtr 1998), 25,964 (1997), 15,500 (yearend 1996), 11,500 (yearend 1995)

Año Fiscal: calendar year