Belarusians were driven into the debt trap: everyone owes about $ 2,5 thousand

The debt of Belarus has grown by more than 10 times less than for 10 years.

Back in 2001, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, said that the main merit of his reign was the fact that "we had not gripped a lot of foreign loans", and also assured Belarusians that they would not get into the credit "trap". The newspaper "Salidarnasts" has learned how assurances of Lukashenka are connected with his actions.

Today it seems to be a plot of some science fiction movie, but back in 2001 on the eve of the election, speaking at the Second All-Belarusian Assembly, the Belarusian leader boasted: "We have not squandered the national wealth, have not gripped a lot of foreign loans, have not got into debt, which had to be given back by our children and grandchildren!"

Indeed, who would like the perspective - to be deep in debt? Honestly speaking, the dictator even then was not quite accurate. At that time Belarus still had the debt of 2 billion 92 million dollars, or 209 USD for every Belarusian - not so great even by today's standards. Compare: in 1997 a separately taken citizen owed $ 197.

Years passed, however, the rhetoric of Lukashenka remained the same, but the debt, unfortunately, did not. In 2007 our country already gained credit for 6 mlrd.844 million. But the governor went on prophesying the life free of debt.

"The undeniable advantage of our economic development model is that we have not got into debt. Credit - is a trap, in which not even we, but our children and grandchildren get. In any case one should not allow the credit to become a tool of pressure on our country," - Lukashenka said in his annual address in 2007.

However, it becomes meaningless to hide the fact that our country sits on credit needle more firmly with each year increasing the pace of borrowing. Media vied for broadcasting about Russian, Chinese, IMF and God knows what loans designed to save our economy. Now, Lukashenka said that, after receiving international loans, our country got a "safety margin". And not a word about life without debts as a distinct advantage of our economic model.

Thus, on the sly, Belarus managed to owe more than $ 23 billion in total (of which 9.6 billion of national debt) by October 2010. Now each of us, including infants, owes, no less - almost 2,5 thousand USD (in 2009 - 1,6 thousand). The trend, you know is a little nasty: less than for 10 years the debt of Belarus has grown by more than 10 times!

And, apparently, it is not the limit. Unless, of course, the Belarusians will not give preference to a new economic model in which the words will not be so much at variance with the action.

Source: Charter'97 :: News from Belarus