OREANDA-NEWS. On 03 February 2009 was announced, that Belarus’ consumer inflation is expected to increase around 3.5% in January 2009, while GDP will remain unchanged year-on-year, Economy Minister Nikolai Zaichenko told a news conference.

“Consumer prices rose 3.1% in the period January 1-20, a new record for this period since 2004. We know the factors - devaluation accounted for 1.3 percentage points, increase in utility fees for 1.1 percentage points, and meat prices also had their impact. As for regulated prices, they made up less than a half, while free prices were faster to respond to devaluation effects. We hope inflation rate will not exceed 3.5% in January,” Zaichenko said.

The government hopes devaluation effects will soon fade out.

“We did not revise annual inflation forecasts. The situation in the first quarter is especially important now,” Zaichenko said.

He also said the government would not revise the GDP forecast.

In January 2009, Belarus’ GDP will not exceed the January 2008 level, Zaichenko said. In January 2008, Belarus’ GDP showed an 8.3% growth year-on-year.

“We have decided to leave GDP forecast for the whole year unchanged, because new targets may not be correct. We may make adjustments as a result of the first quarter to see how far we can go with GDP,” Zaichenko said.

Belarus expects a 10%-12% GDP growth this year, while consumer inflation is expected between 10% and 12%.