Surge in Belarus budget surplus explained

Photo: belta.by

A sharp increase in the surplus of Belarus' central state budget in January-October is due to seasonal changes of revenues and spending, Finance Minister Maksim Yermolovich told reporters on 29 November, BelTA has learned.

“There is nothing extraordinary here. This is a typical seasonal change in budget revenues and spending,” Maksim Yermolovich said. In his words, the Br3.71 billion surplus in January-October has to do with different cycles of revenues and expenditures. “Spending rises by Q4, therefore the surplus will shrink to Br2.2 billion by December. In December spending will keep outpacing revenues, and part of the budget surplus will be used to finance spending,” Maksim Yermolovich said.

The minister emphasized that the surplus is kept on bank accounts. Every week a competition is held to choose the bank where the money will be deposited. This is another way to make money. “In other words, these transactions generate cash. The situation was different before. We had to tap into the market to raise funds to pay salaries and we used budget revenues to repay these funds. Now our system of managing financial flows is rather stable,” he added.

A reminder, the surplus of Belarus' central state budget amounted to Br3.71 billion in January-October 2019. In January-September it was estimated at Br2.7 billion.