The draft 2014 State Budget Law is expected to stipulate a GDP growth rate of 3.3 percent, Viktar Pinihin, first deputy director of the economy ministry's Economic Research Institute, told the House of Representatives in Minsk on Tuesday.
Belarus would seek to meet the GDP growth target by increasing its exports while reducing domestic consumption under the draft law, Mr. Pinihin said. GDP is expected to grow by 3.1 percent as a result of an increase in exports and by 0.2 percent next year, he said.
The GDP growth rate was initially projected at nine percent, "but this was the government's wish rather than a scientific approach," and the forecast was later revised downward to 5.6 percent and then to 2.6 percent because of a failure to "resolve potash and issues," Mr. Pinihin said.
However, the government re-examined opportunities for increasing exports and concluded that GDP could grow by 3.3 percent in 2014 if they were used almost in full, Mr. Pinihin said.
The Belarusian government had initially projected a GDP growth rate of 8.5 percent for 2013 but eventually announced that GDP was expected to grow by only 1.3 percent.
According to a report unveiled last week in Minsk by World Bank experts, Belarus' GDP will grow by one percent this year and by 1.5 percent in 2014.
Belarus' GDP reportedly grew by 1.1 percent year-on-year in January-September 2013.
In 2012, the nation’s GDP increased by 1.5 percent, whereas the government had projected a growth rate of 5.5 percent.
