On June 23, Brest /Alina Grishkevich - BELTA/. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko believes that telling people the truth is more important than his own rating. The head of state stated this today, answering a question from a BELTA correspondent regarding the unpopular statement made by the head of state that there will be no currency in exchange offices in the near future. "If I said that I am not interested in the rating, I would not be entirely sincere. For any politician, this rating is important - how you feel about me, how the people feel about me," said the head of state. At the same time, he noted that there are objective laws, especially in economics. "As an economist, I will say that these economic laws, unfortunately, operate independently of our will. I understand this perfectly, and no matter how much I want to please you, I must act in accordance with these laws. This is the first point. Second: do you think it would be better if I said: Tomorrow there will be currency in exchange offices or somewhere else, but in reality there won't be, would people believe me? No. I told them the truth. If you bring currency to sell, this currency will be in exchange offices and banks, and someone will buy it. But I said - the state will not play this game, figuratively speaking, for now - at least until July," the President emphasized. According to the head of state, after talking with Chinese and Russian specialists, he became convinced once again that he was absolutely right. At the same time, Alexander Lukashenko stressed that if someone urgently needs currency for treatment or business trips abroad, by writing an application to Belarusbank, they will receive currency. But if they can wait for a while, they should wait. Those who do not need currency should not go to exchange offices to get it. "Why withdraw currency from the economy?" the President reasonably remarked. -0-

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