Households. Belarus Economy Monitor in April 2022

Data from the online household survey show that the imposed sanctions, the war of Russia against Ukraine and a declining economic growth in 2022 have not affected Belarusians on a large scale yet: 35% (an increase by 7 percentage points) of respondents report a income drop, excluding the impacts of inflation and of the foreign exchange rate, and 4.2% (an increase by 0.9 percentage points) of respondents report a job loss in the last two weeks. At the same time, 41% (an increase by 5 percentage points) of those who report an income decline save on food. Despite future challenges faced by the Belarusian economy, Belarusians’ expectations at the macro level have improved: the share of positive answers to the question about the future of the country has increased by 6 percentage points; and Belarusians’ expectations of the future at the micro level have lowered: the share of positive answers to the question about the future financial situation of their families has decreased by 6 percentage points. In general, households start experiencing a significant deterioration compared to December 2021; however, the scale of this deterioration remains quite low so far.