Belarusians are not getting poorer, and their incomes have grown by 20% since 2015. Such an argument was made by propagandist Alyaksandar Shpakouski in a conversation with the Minskaya Pravda newspaper. They asked him for advice on how to deal with lies during the information war.
"When they say that people are getting poorer, we should point out that this is not exactly true. GDP per capita in terms of purchasing power parity has grown by 20% since 2015 and reached $22,000 per person," Shpakouski said.
Indeed, Belarus' GDP per capita in terms of purchasing power parity, that is including the consumer price level, was $21,600 per person last year. And it has grown by 20% since 2015.
But this is not the whole truth. This is the lowest growth rate in the post-Soviet space, except for Azerbaijan. Over the same period, Kazakhstan's GDP in terms of purchasing power parity grew by 23% to $28,600 - more than in Belarus. For example, in Russia the indicator grew by 36%, in Moldova - by 69%, in Lithuania - by 48%, and even in Ukraine - by 39%.
Moreover, Alyaksandar Shpakouski has taken 2015 as a basis for a reason. The thing is that Belarus was at its development peak in 2014, and in 2015 the decline began. And in terms of GDP per capita, Belarus hasn’t still returned to its pre-crisis 2014 level.