Context: Belarus’ parliament has approved the national budget for 2026. Spending is set at 58.73 billion rubles, while revenues are projected at 54.38 billion rubles. The state budget deficit reaches 4.35 billion rubles.
Reporting on the adoption of the national budget on December 3, 2025, a host on the ONT news program Our News, Katsiaryna Tyshkevich, listed what she said would be the state’s top spending priorities: “The main expenditures next year are social items.” Deputies in the House of Representatives approved the national budget. Planned revenues exceed 54 billion rubles, higher than this year’s intake. “The priority spending areas are health care, education and support for the agricultural and industrial complex.”
The Weekly Top Fake team calculated that social spending accounts for about 18% of the budget. Nearly three-quarters of expenditures are directed toward funding
the state apparatus, the economy and the law enforcement system. State apparatus spending includes both funding for state bodies and transfers to local budgets, as well as spending on servicing the state debt, which will cost Belarus about 25% more in 2026.
Spending on internal security — that is, courts, police and other security agencies — is also set to rise by about 25%, while defense spending will be cut by several percentage points. Taken together, this amounts to roughly the same level of funding allocated to social spending — more than 11.2 billion rubles. Spending on the police, for example, is comparable to the amount allocated for pension payments nationwide.
Funding increases are also planned for industry and construction, which will receive nearly one and a half times more money than in 2025 — 7.8% of the budget — as well as for science and research across various fields. New methods and technologies are of particular interest to the authorities in law enforcement, where funding is set to double.
Social spending is a priority for local budgets, but not for the national budget. Its share has remained unchanged compared with 2025.
