The overvalued rubel has especially hurt Belarusian exporters, most of which now operate at a loss. In addition, the January 1995 Customs Union agreement with Russia - which required Minsk to adjust its foreign trade practices to mirror Moscow's - has resulted in higher import tariffs for Belarusian consumers; tariffs have risen from 5%-20% to 20%-40%.
GDP: purchasing power parity - $49.2 billion (1995 estimate as extrapolated from World Bank estimate for 1994)
GDP real growth rate: −10% (1995 est.)
GDP per capita: $4,700 (1995 est.)
GDP composition by sector: agriculture: 21% industry: 49% services: 30% (1991 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 244% (1995 est.)
Labor force: 4.259 million by occupation: industry and construction 40%, agriculture and forestry 21%, other 39% (1992)
Unemployment rate: 2.6% officially registered unemployed (December
1994); large numbers of underemployed workers
Budget:
revenues: $4.95 billion
expenditures: $5.47 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA
(1996 est.)
Industries: tractors, metal-cutting machine tools, off-highway dump trucks up to 110-metric-ton load capacity, wheel-type earth movers for construction and mining, eight-wheel-drive, high-flotation trucks with cargo capacity of 25 metric tons for use in tundra and roadless areas, equipment for animal husbandry and livestock feeding, motorcycles, television sets, chemical fibers, fertilizer, linen fabric, wool fabric, radios, refrigerators, other consumer goods
Industrial production growth rate: −11% (1995 est.)
Electricity: capacity: 7,010,000 kW production: 24.9 billion kWh consumption per capita: 2,300 kWh (1995 est.)
Agriculture: grain, potatoes, vegetables; meat, milk
Illicit drugs: illicit cultivator of opium poppy and cannabis;
mostly for the domestic market; transshipment point for illicit
drugs to Western Europe
Exports: $4.2 billion (f.o.b., 1995)
commodities: machinery and transport equipment, chemicals, foodstuffs
partners: Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Germany
Imports: $4.6 billion (c.i.f., 1995)
commodities: fuel, natural gas, industrial raw materials, textiles,
sugar
partners: Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Germany
External debt: $2 billion (September 1995 est.)
Economic aid:
recipient: ODA, $186 million (1993)
note: commitments, $3,930 million ($1,845 million disbursements),
1992–95
Currency: Belarusian rubel (BR)
Exchange rates: Belarusian rubels per US$1 - 11,500 (yearend 1995), 10,600 (yearend 1994)
Fiscal year: calendar year
Transportation———————
Railways: total: 5,488 km broad gauge: 5,488 km 1.520-m gauge (873 km electrified) (1993)
Highways:
total: 92,200 km
paved: 61,000 km (including graveled)
unpaved: 31,200 km (1994 est.)
Waterways: NA km; note - Belarus has extensive and widely used
canal and river systems
Pipelines: crude oil 1,470 km; refined products 1,100 km; natural
gas 1,980 km (1992)
Ports: Mazyr
Merchant marine:
note: claims 5% of former Soviet fleet (1995 est.)
Airports:
total: 118
with paved runways over 3 047 m: 2
with paved runways 2 438 to 3 047 m: 18
with paved runways 1 524 to 2 437 m: 5
with paved runways under 914 m: 11
with unpaved runways over 3 047 m: 1
with unpaved runways 2 438 to 3 047 m: 6
with unpaved runways 1 524 to 2 437 m: 4
with unpaved runways 914 to 1 523 m: 9
with unpaved runways under 914 m: 62 (1994 est.)
Communications———————
Telephones: 1.849 million (1991 est.)
Telephone system: telephone service inadequate for the purposes of
either business or the population; about 70% of the telephones are
in homes; over 750,000 applications from households for telephones
remain unsatisfied (1992 est.); new investment centers on
international connections and business needs
domestic: the new NMT-450 analog cellular system is now operating in
Minsk
international: international traffic is carried by the Moscow
international gateway switch and also by satellite; satellite earth
stations - 1 Intelsat (through Canada) and 1 Eutelsat (through the
UK)
Radio broadcast stations: AM 35, FM 18, shortwave 0
Radios: 3.17 million (1991 est.) (5,615,000 with multiple speaker systems for program diffusion)
Television broadcast stations: 2 (one national and one private; the license of the private station was suspended during the parliamentary elections of 1994)
Televisions: 3.5 million (1992 est.)
Defense———
Branches: Army, Air Force, Air Defense Force, Republic Security
Forces (internal and border troops)
Manpower availability: males age 15–49: 2,635,570 males
