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Is €760 really equal to €1,500? ONT inflated Belarusian salaries to match Portugal’s level
We’re fact-checking the entrepreneurs’ union chief’s claim about European-level salaries in Belarus.
Belarusian average salaries have reached the level of Portugal, said Alexander Kalinin, head of the Belarusian Entrepreneurs’ Union. The Weekly Top Fake team set out to verify whether that’s true.
Honorary chairman of the Belarusian Entrepreneurs’ Union Alexander Kalinin boasted about Belarus’s economic achievements on June 7, 2025, during the “Kak Posmotret” program on ONT.
“Our average salary is growing, right? It has reached the level of some European countries. So, $800 due to the strengthening of the Belarusian ruble—which is, for example, comparable to the average salary in Portugal and so on,” Kalinin said.
According to Belstat, the nominal average salary in Belarus reached €760 in April 2025. In dollar terms, that’s actually a bit higher than the figure Alexander Kalinin cited. Meanwhile, the average salary in Portugal tops €1,500,according to the country’s National Institute of Statistics. Portugal’sminimum wage—€870 a month—is actually closer to the average salary in Belarus. But even that amount is $100 higher.
In nearly every EU country, the minimum wage is higher than the average salary in Belarus. There are only three exceptions: Bulgaria, Hungary, and Latvia. Meanwhile, the minimum wage in Belarus is just over €200.
