Republic

MINSK, 26 April (BelTA) – The Belarusian Economy Ministry is revising inflation estimates for 2011, Belarusian Economy Minister Nikolai Snopkov told media on 26 April as he commented on the price situation in Belarus. As of 20 April inflation measured since the beginning of the year stood at 8.75% while this year’s inflation forecast is set at 7.5-8.5%. “We are calculating a new forecast now. Inflation is already past the forecast level although inflation base without energy industry and imported food makes up 3.6-3.7%,” said Nikolai Snopkov. “We are calculating and wouldn’t like to be wrong again. Our calculations take into account whether the National Bank will set a balanced exchange rate and whether shrinkage of state budget spending will allow hitting GDP targets. So far we cannot answer the first question or the second one. For now we wouldn’t like to publicize the scenarios we are calculating,” stressed the Economy Minister. In his words, problems on the foreign exchange market have resulted in certain negative impact on the price situation in Belarus. The problems have also spurred the consumer price index growth. “As a matter of principle 75% of inflation has monetary origins. Everything related to banking industry, monetary management directly influences inflation among other things,” explained Nikolai Snopkov.

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