Belarus inflation falls after Lukashenko bans price rises

(Reuters) -Inflation in Belarus fell during October after President Alexander Lukashenko banned retailers from hiking prices in a drastic bid to address falling living standards.

Inflation was running at 15.2% in annual terms as of Nov. 1, the state statistics agency said on Friday, down from an annual rate of 17.4% recorded a month earlier.

Prices fell by 0.6% during the month, it added.

Lukashenko ordered a "moratorium" on rising prices at the beginning of October, threatening criminal liability for shops that defied the order. The move came after the government said it expected annual inflation would climb to 19% for 2022.

Belarus's economy has been hit by Western sanctions, imposed first over Lukashenko's harsh crackdown on protesters following a presidential election in 2020 that his critics, rights groups and Western governments said was illegitimate, and then over Minsk's support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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