Increase in Enterprises’ Net Profit Went Into Growth of Inventories — Yahorau

Belarusian enterprises significantly increased their net profit last year. However, this did not improve the situation with working capital, as inventories grew at the same time. This is stated in a report by First Deputy Chairman of the Board of the National Bank of Belarus Aliaksandr Yahorau, published in the journal Bankouski Vestnik.

According to Belstat, the net profit of Belarusian enterprises last year increased by 21.6 percent to 23.04 billion roubles.

“At the same time, the absolute increase in net profit of 3 billion Belarusian roubles was almost entirely spent, from the perspective of enterprises’ cash balances, on the growth of finished goods inventories.
Thus, in reality there was no improvement in the situation with enterprises’ working capital across the economy as a whole, despite the significant pace of net profit growth,” the publication says.

It should be recalled that as of February 1, inventories in industry exceeded 12 billion roubles. Over the year, they increased by 2.33 billion roubles.