Belarus’ retail turnover, including the public catering sector, went down by 2.9% YoY in January-August to 23.715 billion Belarusian rubles ($12.146 billion) in comparable prices, an official with the National Statistics Committee (Belstat) reported.
Trade organizations accounted for 85.2%, and individual entrepreneurs and newly formed unitary companies accounted for the rest (14.8%).
The trade turnover of Belarus’ state-owned trading companies expanded by 0.2% in January-August to Br20.196 billion ($10.344 billion), markets and trade centers dropped by 17.6% to Br3.519 billion ($1.802 billion).
Sales of foodstuffs accounted for 51.8% of the total trade turnover, non-foods – 48.2%. Retail sales of foodstuffs fell by 1% to Br12.275 billion ($6.287 billion), non-foods – by 4.9% to Br11.44 billion ($5.259 billion). (Prime-TASS/Business World Magazine)