Updated at 17:53,27-03-2024

Moody’s: Belarus’ economy will be the only one in CIS to drop in 2017

BelarusFeed / TUT.BY

Moody’s: Belarus’ economy will be the only one in CIS to drop in 2017
In 2017, economies of all CIS countries will be growing slightly faster than in 2016, with only the economy of Belarus expected to slow down again.

The forecast is based on the review nine counties of the CIS by the international rating agency Moody’s.

“Governments have coped with oil prices shock using proven methods like the introduction of a floating exchange rate and tighter monetary and fiscal policies.

This has helped mitigate the impact of falling oil prices and will allow the majority of the CIS countries to show some improvement in the economy in 2017″, one of the authors of the report, Senior Vice President Kristin Lindow.

“However, the macroeconomic outlook remains weak.”

Economies are expected to grow faster in comparison with 2016 – on average by 2% in 2017 and 3% in 2018 across the region. Increase in oil prices is likely to allow the governments of the countries exporters of oil to relax their fiscal and monetary policies, and will add to a slight increase in remittance inflows in countries importers of oil.

Moody’s expectes that Russia will show a positive, albeit still modest, GDP growth of 1% in 2017.

“This will help to improve the situation in the whole region through trade and financial relations between the two countries. Only Belarus’s economy is expected to shrink again in 2017”, the forecast says.

Belarusian GDP fell by 2.7% in January-November last year, despite the official forecast for 2016, approved in December of 2015, that envisaged the GDP growth at 0.3%.

Belarusian authorities expect GDP to rise by 1.7% in 2017.