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.

purchasing power parity - $55.2 billion (1999 est.)

1.5% (1999 est.)

purchasing power parity - $5,300 (1999 est.)

agriculture: 23%
industry: 28%
services: 49% (1998 est.)

22% (1995 est.)

lowest 10%: 4.9%
highest 10%: 19.4% (1993)

295% (1999 est.)

4.3 million (1998)

industry and construction NA%,
agriculture and forestry NA%, services NA%

2.3% officially registered unemployed (December
1998); large number of underemployed workers

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

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

8% (1999 est.)

21.893 billion kWh (1998)

fossil fuel: 99.89%
hydro: 0.11%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1998)

28.66 billion kWh (1998)

2.3 billion kWh (1998)

10.6 billion kWh (1998)

grain, potatoes, vegetables, sugar beets,
flax; beef, milk

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

machinery and equipment, chemicals, metals,
textiles, foodstuffs

Russia 66%, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Lithuania
(1998)

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

mineral products, machinery and equipment,
metals, chemicals, foodstuffs

Russia 54%, Ukraine, Germany, Poland, Lithuania
(1998)

$1.1 billion (1998 est.)

$194.3 million (1995)

Belarusian rubel (BR)

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)

calendar year