Barys Zhaliba: There Is No Prospect Of Economic Growth In Belarus

The living standard is not increasing in our country.

By 2020, the authorities want to abandon cross-subsidization completely. Such a statement was made by Energy Minister of Belarus Uladzimir Patupchyk on Wednesday. According to him, the electricity tariffs that exist in the country are the lowest "not only in the post-Soviet space, but, probably, in the world."

As the Energy Minister notes, the cost of such cross-subsidization is about 750 million dollars annually. And this amount "falls on the shoulders of the real sector of the economy." By 2020, this scheme will have been eliminated completely.

Doctor of economic sciences Barys Zhaliba has told in the express commentary to Salidarnasts about what should the population of Belarus expect in this situation.

– Yes, our tariffs are among the lowest in the world – you can be trust the minister, – the expert says. – But do not forget that we also have the lowest salaries in the world.

According to the economist, international lenders, in particular the IMF, demand from Belarus to introduce a hundred percent payment not only for energy consumption, but also for all the housing and communal services.

– And the government fulfills willingly the demands of creditors at the expense of the population, as well as at the expense of low people’s salaries. They report to the creditors that we are on schedule, and by the end of 2018 we will have reached full payment. And if you look at how the salaries are planned to be increased, you can see that they obviously lag behind the growth of tariffs. That is the main problem, – Barys Zhaliba emphasizes.

According to the interlocutor, the government should first find reserves to raise people's salaries, and only after that it is possible to fulfill the IMF requirements.

– Now it all comes at the expense of reducing the standard of living of the population. We see that the nominal salary has slightly increased, but real incomes are not growing. It is due to these mandatory payments, which include housing and communal services, that our standard of living does not increase. And it will go down if we go at such a pace.

It is not difficult to increase tariffs, it’s paperwork, as they says. A more important issue is how this will affect the living standards of the population. Especially, when we do not observe any prospects for the rapid economy growth, – Barys Zhaliba explains.