2003 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $2.976 billion
expenditures: $3.211 billion, including capital expenditures of $180
million (2003 est.)

Agriculture - products:
grain, potatoes, vegetables, sugar beets, flax; beef, milk

Industries:
metal-cutting machine tools, tractors, trucks, earthmovers,
motorcycles, television sets, chemical fibers, fertilizer, textiles,
radios, refrigerators

Industrial production growth rate:
5% (2003 est.)

Electricity - production:
24.4 billion kWh (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
26.69 billion kWh (2001)

Electricity - exports:
300 million kWh (2001)

Electricity - imports:
4.3 billion kWh (2001)

Oil - production:
37,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)

Oil - consumption:
230,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)

Oil - exports:
NA (2001)

Oil - imports:
NA (2001)

Natural gas - production:
200 million cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
18 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
17.8 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Current account balance:
$-945 million (2003)

Exports:
$9.413 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)

Exports - commodities:
machinery and equipment, mineral products, chemicals, metals;
textiles, foodstuffs

Exports - partners:
Russia 49.1%, UK 9.4%, Poland 4.4%, Germany 4.2%, Netherlands 4.2%
(2003)

Imports:
$11.09 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)

Imports - commodities:
mineral products, machinery and equipment, chemicals, foodstuffs,
metals

Imports - partners:
Russia 65.8%, Germany 7.1%, Ukraine 3.1% (2003)

Reserves of foreign exchange & gold:
$637 million (2003)

Debt - external:
$851 million (2001 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
$194.3 million (1995)

Currency:
Belarusian ruble (BYB/BYR)

Currency code:
BYB/BYR

Exchange rates:
Belarusian rubles per US dollar - 1,790.92 (2003), 1,920 (2002),
1,390 (2001), 876.75 (2000), 248.795 (1999)

Fiscal year:
calendar year

Communications Belarus

Telephones - main lines in use:
3,071,300 (2003)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
1.118 million (2003)

Telephone system:
general assessment: the Ministry of Telecommunications controls all
telecommunications through its carrier (a joint stock company)
Beltelcom which is a monopoly
domestic: local - Minsk has a digital metropolitan network and a
cellular NMT-450 network; waiting lists for telephones are long;
l