Belarus government against measuring revenues of individuals in U.S. dollars

MINSK (BelTA) – The Belarus government would like to phase out the practice of measuring revenues of citizens in U.S. dollar terms. Prime Minister of Belarus Andrei Kobyakov made the relevant statement after the government conference held by the head of state on 26 May to discuss the draft main provisions of the program on the country's social and economic development in 2016-2020, BelTA has learned.

According to Andrei Kobyakov, the targeted revenue of citizens will be adjusted. “I think the nation understands now that the practice of measuring these figures in U.S. dollars has to go away. It doesn't mean we've failed to accomplish something. Measuring revenues in U.S. dollars is not always fair and is not exactly correct from the point of view of economics,” said the Prime Minister of Belarus.

In his words, raising real salaries and revenues of individuals should be the top priority. “Taking into account the adjustment of macroeconomic parameters of social and economic development the relevant parameters concerning the growth of real salaries and earnings of the population will be adjusted as well. The growth will be balanced but absolutely incremental, consistent and decent,” stated the Prime Minister.

“I think we will be able to talk about specific figures in ten days [after provisions of the social and economic development program are adjusted]. But let me say once again we don't want anything measured in U.S. dollars. We should enable a higher purchasing capacity of salaries and revenues of our citizens. It is the key task,” concluded Andrei Kobyakov.