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Lukashenka warns that pay increases will depend on labor productivity

Alyaksandr Lukashenka warned on Friday that future pay increases in Belarus would depend on labor productivity.

Speaking at a news conference in Minsk, Mr. Lukashenka also indicated that the government would scale down money printing.

“If we speak about pay and pension increases, something that we did several times earlier this year, we did not print money for the purpose. We raise salaries today, at least slightly - I have promised this to people - only when we have the money. If there is money in the budget, we will give everything up to the last kopeck to people,” he said.

The Belarusian leader warned against “printing money and paying it to people,” explaining that the practice led to high inflation.

“We must not allow inflation. What matters most is an increase in our people’s well-being. There will be no well-being if there is a high increase in prices, if there is inflation, which eats away at much of our population’s incomes,” he said.

“This year we have lived eight or 10 months without printing money. We have made do without it and will do so next year. Money must be earned. The basic economic law on the dependence of salaries on labor productivity will be strictly observed. If there is labor productivity and an increase in output per unit of time, you will earn more.”

Mr. Lukashenka warned that the government would control prices and expressed hope that inflation would not exceed 20 percent in 2012. He stressed that after his tough warnings issued to manufacturers and traders over price increases, “prices stopped rising and even inched down by 0.5 or even one percent.”

He also said that the authorities would not raise taxes next year. “We can collect money into the budget by cracking down on enterprises and raising taxes, taking away the last that they have and giving it to people. But we will ruin the manufacturing sector. If there is no manufacture, all troubles will come back in a year’s time,” he noted. //BelaPAN