Belarus

After seven decades as a constituent republic of the USSR, Belarus attained its independence in 1991. It has retained closer political and economic ties to Russia than any of the other former Soviet republics. Belarus and Russia signed a treaty on a two-state union on 8 December 1999 envisioning greater political and economic integration. Although Belarus agreed to a framework to carry out the accord, serious implementation has yet to take place. Since his election in July 1994 as the country's first president, Aleksandr LUKASHENKO has steadily consolidated his power through authoritarian means. Government restrictions on freedom of speech and the press, peaceful assembly, and religion remain in place.
==Economical characteristics==
* Currency: Belarusian ruble (ISO code: BYR)
* Central bank discount rate: 12% (31 December 2008)
* Commercial banks lending rate: 8.55% (31 December 2008)
* Stock of money (M1): $4.872 billion (31 December 2008)
* Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $8.784 billion (31 December 2008)
===Statistics===
Statistic / Year 	1999 	2000 	2001 	2002 	2003 	2004 	2005 	2006 	2007 	2008
GDP (million USD)World Bank. "Belarus: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29. 	12 138	12 737	12 355	14 595	17 825	23 142	30 210	36 962	45 276	60 313
Govt. debt (% of GDP)World Bank. "Belarus: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29. 	15.103	15.014	11.441	12.337	 	 	6.570 	6.644 	8.909 	10.736
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)World Bank. "Belarus: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29. 	28.712	28.681	28.476	26.568	29.323	31.436	33.779	37.152	38.251	39.182
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)World Bank. "Belarus: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-29.	27.059	25.340	26.871	24.678	28.213	29.270	30.251	32.413	34.658	34.204
Debt to revenue (years) 	0.526 	0.523 	0.402 	0.464 	 	 	0.195 	0.179 	0.233 	0.274
==References==
Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.
==External links==
* Belarus on Wikipedia
* Central bank of Belarus
* Country profile (pdf) from the Enterprise Studies page (part of the The World Bank Group)
* Studies from the Library of Congress (1986-1998)
* BBC country profile
Category:Countries