Belarus

From Mises Wiki, the global repository of classical-liberal thought
Jump to: navigation, search
Country summary

Capital

Minsk

Borders

Latvia 171 km, Lithuania 680 km, Poland 605 km, Russia 959 km, Ukraine 891 km

Government type

republic

Population

9,648,533 (July 2010 est.)[1]

Population growth

-0.378% (2010 est.)[1]

Life expectancy

70.63 years[1]

Unemployment

1% (2009 est.)[1]

Index of Economic Freedom

150[2]

Corruption Perceptions Index

139[3]

Doing Business ranking

58[4]


After seven decades as a constituent republic of the USSR, Belarus attained its independence in 1991. It has retained closer political and economic ties to Russia than any of the other former Soviet republics. Belarus and Russia signed a treaty on a two-state union on 8 December 1999 envisioning greater political and economic integration. Although Belarus agreed to a framework to carry out the accord, serious implementation has yet to take place. Since his election in July 1994 as the country's first president, Aleksandr LUKASHENKO has steadily consolidated his power through authoritarian means. Government restrictions on freedom of speech and the press, peaceful assembly, and religion remain in place.[1]

Economical characteristics

  • Currency: Belarusian ruble (ISO code: BYR)
  • Central bank discount rate: 12% (31 December 2008)[1]
  • Commercial banks lending rate: 8.55% (31 December 2008)[1]
  • Stock of money (M1): $4.872 billion (31 December 2008)[1]
  • Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $8.784 billion (31 December 2008)[1]

Notable events:

Statistics

Statistic / Year 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
GDP (million USD)[6] 12 138 12 737 12 355 14 595 17 825 23 142 30 210 36 962 45 276 60 313
Govt. debt (% of GDP)[7] 15.103 15.014 11.441 12.337 6.570 6.644 8.909 10.736
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)[8] 28.712 28.681 28.476 26.568 29.323 31.436 33.779 37.152 38.251 39.182
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)[9] 27.059 25.340 26.871 24.678 28.213 29.270 30.251 32.413 34.658 34.204
Debt to revenue (years) 0.526 0.523 0.402 0.464 0.195 0.179 0.233 0.274

References

Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 CIA - The World Factbook. "Belarus", from The World Factbook. Referenced 2010-09-29.
  2. ↑ Heritage Foundation. "Belarus", Economic Freedom Score. A lower ranking is better; but please be careful when comparing between different countries or years. Referenced 2010-09-29.
  3. ↑ Transparency International. "Belarus", Corruption Perceptions Index 2009. A lower ranking is better; but please note that the numbers cannot be compared between countries or years due to different methodology. Referenced 2010-09-29.
  4. ↑ Doing Business. "Belarus", Doing Business 2010 (part of The World Bank Group). A lower ranking is better; but please be careful when comparing between different countries or years. Referenced 2010-09-29.
  5. ↑ Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff. "This Time is Different", Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-14216-6, p. 351. (The list does not claim to be complete.) Referenced 2011-07-19.
  6. ↑ World Bank. "Belarus: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29.
  7. ↑ World Bank. "Belarus: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29.
  8. ↑ World Bank. "Belarus: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29.
  9. ↑ World Bank. "Belarus: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29.

Links

Retrieved from "https://wiki.mises.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Belarus&oldid=13469"