Belarus’ GDP will amount to $14.6-$14.8 billion by late 2003, Deputy Minister of Economy Andrei Tur stated

“For the time being foreign trade turnover makes 118% of the GDP, which testifies to the openness of the Belarusian economy,” claims Andrei Tur stressing that Belarus enters the world’s top five most open economies. The economist believes, that it is extremely important for Belarus “to transform from an industrial country into a post-industrial one, making living by services, not goods”. Andrei Tur underlined a stable universal tendency towards growing prices for resources and falling prices for ready products observed over the past 15 years. The inflation rate in January-October 2003 reached its lowest level since 1991, Anatoly Tyutyunov, Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus announced on November, 28. In January-October the consumer price index made 1.9% in comparison with 2.4% of the same period of 2002. In 2003, the consumer price growth can make 124%, or 1.8% a month.