Economist on decrease of maternity leave: where will products go?

Economist Leanid Zaika is skeptical about the authorities’ idea to decrease maternity leaves. The idea was pronounced by President’s assistant Kiryl Rudy. He suggested decreasing it from 3 to 2 years. The decrease of maternity leaves will help the economy grow by 2.3%, Rudy thinks.

However, the decrease of maternity leaves violates the rights of children who should be brought up by mothers, Zaika thinks. Furthermore, he doubts the economic use of Rudy’s idea:

Zaika: "Where will the increased number of produced goods go? The demand for Belarusian products has decreased by more than 30% in Russia and a quarter of Belarusian goods is not needed in the world market.”

Everyone knows that young mothers are unreliable workers because small children often fall ill and women need a lot of sick-lists, Zaika added. That is why they are unlikely to improve the situation in the labour market.