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World Bank predicts Belarus's GDP to fall 3.5 pct in 2015

Xinhua, April 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

The World Bank said on Monday that Belarus's gross domestic product (GDP) was projected to contract 3. 5 percent in 2015, a sharp slowdown from an earlier forecast of 1. 8 percent growth.

The contraction will continue in 2016, with the GDP expected to decline 1 percent partly due to the weak demand in Belarus's main trading partners as well as low oil prices, said Ruslan Piontkivsky, the World Bank's senior economist for Belarus.

The World Bank expected the country's consumer price inflation to reach 18.8 percent this year, against 16.2 percent seen last year, Piontkivsky said at a press conference.

The expert said that comprehensive, coherent and credible structural reforms would allow Belarus to adjust to the changing environment and to return to strong growth.

The Belarussian economy fell by 2 percent in the first quarter and prices rose by 4.9 percent.

Belarussian authorities see the country's GDP growing between 0. 2 percent and 0.7 percent in 2015 and that the inflation is projected at 16-20 percent. The IMF believed that the Belarussian economy would fall by 2.3 percent in 2015. Endite