Today the President of Belarus has listened to the reports of the government, the National Bank and regional authorities in the Council of Ministers.
The Head of State was informed about the social and economic development of the country over the past year. As noted by Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov, there is stability in the currency and financial markets. However, 2 out of 13 indicators of social and economic development have not been met: the terms of growth in real incomes of the population and the volume of construction works. Alexander Lukashenko reminds once again of his instruction to reach an average salary in the amount of a thousand rubles. During the year, this figure must be surpassed by raising wages to state employees.
Alexander Lukashenko criticized the government for insufficient efforts to create high-performance jobs. At the same time there is interregional stratification within the country, the standard of living in the capital and regions is polar. The rise in prices remains the main problem for the population. Hence the President's demand for the National Bank is to reduce inflationary expectations.
Participation of the banking system in the development of the economy, the growth of gold and foreign exchange reserves was discussed today. In 2017, the reserves increased by almost $ 2.5 billion, partially including the funds raised for payments on currency obligations in the current year.
One of the tasks discussed at today's meeting is dealing with the rise in prices for dairy products. Monitoring of the situation and proposals for an effective mechanism for influencing the prices of goods of daily demand are expected from the Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade.
