Foreign Trade: What Lies Behind the Success?
Belstat recently released the data both for foreign trade in goods and services (balance of payments methodology) and for trade in goods (methodology of statistics of foreign trade). According to this data, in Belarus in 2017 the balance of goods and services was positive and amounted to USD 63.2 million. This undoubtedly can be considered as a good economic sign, especially given the fact that for many years the balance of trade in goods and services remained negative. However, a closer look at the released data on foreign trade raises some concerns about the possibility of maintaining in 2018 positive results. The surplus was a consequence of a favorable balance of trade in services, while the negative balance of trade in goods increased both based on a balance of payments methodology and on a foreign trade statistics methodology.