**3.2 The "middle-income trap"**

The "middle-income trap," also called the "development trap"—term introduced by the World Bank economists I. Gill and H. Kharas [15]. This trap occurs when rising salaries no longer lead to country-fast development as measured by GDP per capita (GNI per capita, Atlas) and the country finds itself trapped on par with other middleincome countries. The borders of the "middle-income trap" start from 1006 USD till 12,235 USD of GNI per capita [16]. Others use nominal GDP per capita to estimate "middle-income trap" in the limits of 10,000 dollars to 15,000 USD [17] or real GDP per capita (purchasing power parity) from 5000 USD to 10,000 USD [18]. There is also the method to compare developing countries' GDP per capital with the same US' indicator and to use it as the share from 5 to 45% to make conclusions about the pitfall [19].

Using Atlas methodology, it was found out that Belarus got into the "middleincome trap" since its independence and has been there for almost three decades. In 2007, Belarus moved from the group of lower middle-income countries to the group of upper middle-income countries with GNI per capita more than 3956 USD. But it did not go out and made reverse from the exit in 2014, staying in this upper level trap already more than 10 years [20]. The other countries which got into "middleincome" pitfall have been staying there more than 5 years (39 out of 55 countries in the period from 1989 till 2016), and more than 20 years (15 out of 55 countries in the same period). The cases of Russia, Croatia, and Equatorial Guinea prove that countries can go back to the "middle-income trap," even if they left it before.

There are several reasons why Belarus is trapped in the "middle-income" pitfall.
