Welfare System Financing in Belarus

The topic of welfare sector development in Belarus is nowadays of huge interest since by means of welfare development level it is possible to judge the level and the country’s economic system and the quality of public sector services as well. In recent years, especially in time of recession, the welfare sector positions in Belarus have been considerably weakened. And this is partly explained by the aspiration to keep the old Soviet designs in the welfare system construction. At the same time, when national and subnational budgets are being planned, the governments try to hold with great difficulty the budgetary indicators of welfare sphere at the level of last years. Such attempts, however, lead to the saving of budgetary funds only and they influence the deterioration of the welfare quality. The present paper pursues the aim to show: (i) what tendencies of social budgetary policy can be observed in the time of economic recession (ii), how consistent was the welfare orientation of the central and local budgets in practice and (iii) what prospect ways for welfare sector improvement are there in Belarus. This paper considers the Belarusian welfare branches in national budget and subnational ones, their structure, dynamics and other important indicators. The comparative analysis of welfare sector branches with other European countries is submitted. The paper opens with the inconsistent policy of the Belarusian authorities in the sphere of welfare branches funding. Prospect issues of welfare sphere finance reformation in Belarus in time of an economic crisis are considered.