Business news

GOMEL, 26 October (BelTA) – The export of goods of Gomel Oblast-based municipally owned companies went up by 24% in January-September 2017 from the same period a year prior, Andrei Konyushko, Deputy Chairman of the Gomel Oblast Executive Committee, noted at the session of the committee on 26 October, BelTA has learned.

According to the deputy governor, most economic performance targets set by the government were met in January-September. “For example, the growth rate of the gross regional product totaled 102% (projected at 100.6%), the workforce productivity – 103.3% (projected at 100.9%), the export of services – 116% (103.2%). Gomel Oblast has beaten the targets regarding the volume of construction and installation works, the commissioning of housing, and retail sales,” Andrei Konyushko said.

Compared with 2016, every economic sector is witnessing an uptrend. For instance, the industrial output went up by 5.1% even though Mozyr Oil Refinery has not reached the full capacity yet. The agricultural output has grown, too. “This increase is below the target. This has an objective explanation: the harvest of corn, potatoes, and vegetables in 2017 started later than in 2016. All these positions will see a growth. This is why we will reach the target in agriculture following the January-October period,” Andrei Konyushko underlined.

The number of loss-making organizations has dropped; the backlog of finished products at the Gomel Oblast-based companies accounts for 30.4% of the average monthly output (the standard being 45%). The share of external accounts receivable has went down as well as the expenses on the production and sales of products.

At the same time, the growth of the average salary in Gomel Oblast has been falling behind so far. This is why local authorities and commercial entities need to team up to deal with this issue. Additional attention should be paid to creating new jobs. “According to the current data, in January-September this indicator is in line with the estimates, although we need to do plenty of work in this direction in Q4,” Andrei Konyushko summarized.