The case of Belarus economy has puzzled many academic scholars for years. Belarus has often been referred as a transition outlier, given its fast recovery without much transformation of economy. Three decades after gaining its independence, it remains largely state-owned. Subsidized financing of state-owned enterprises allowed to preserve production capabilities over the first decade, achieve some productivity gains in late 1990s-early 2000s, and to avoid social destabilisation. However, with a delay in structural reforms, this economic model, also heavily dependent on the Russian subsidies, has become fatigued, driving the economy into stagnation. The Covid-19 and recent post-presidential political crisis put further strains on the economy, calling for change. This paper gives an overview of the Belarusian economic developments before the presidential elections to provide a better understanding of how various rigidities of the Belarusian economic model have amplified the detrimental effect of the political unrest for the economy and the Belarusian society overall, and discusses the anti-crisis and mid-term economic reforms Belarus will have to undergo in the near future.
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