Minister: Belarus' austerity budget 2022 will not affect salary growth

Despite the austerity nature of the national budget 2022, state employees and pensioners will not feel any additional burden, Belarus' Finance Minister Yuri Seliverstov said in an interview with ONT TV channel, BelTA has learned.

This year's budget expectations are modest, but positive. “Initially, when we formed it for this year, we proceeded from conservative estimates,” said Yuri Seliverstov. At that time, it was unclear how the country would emerge from the pandemic, how much money it would be able to earn. “We had a significant deficit of Br4 billion, which increased to Br6 billion, or more than 3% of GDP, after adjustments at the beginning of the year. It was supposed to be covered by budget surpluses, a ‘safety net' we had accumulated in previous years. However, in January-September 2021, the deficit stood at a little over Br1 billion, less than 1% of GDP. We will probably not be able to get completely out of the deficit this year and recover the way we have been working before. Moreover, certain industries are under sanctions. However, there will be no failures, defaults in payments, or any additional measures that may affect the wellbeing of citizens,” the minister said.

Next year's budget is also planned within conservative scenarios. All revenues are grouped and expenses that can wait until later are excluded in order to stay in balance as much as possible and to have reserves.

There will be no additional burden on state employees. “Salaries will increase in any case. The salary growth will be higher than inflation,” the minister said.