The Government of Belarus has developed a program to stabilize the economy.
23/05/20110 views
On May 23, Minsk /BelTA correspondent/. The Government of Belarus has developed a program to stabilize the economy. This was announced on May 20 by the Prime Minister of Belarus Mikhail Myasnikovich at a meeting with journalists, BelTA correspondent reports.
According to Mikhail Myasnikovich, the program has been reviewed by experts from the EurAsEC countries and was agreed with the leadership of the Russian Federation in Minsk on May 19.
"As for the currency policy, a clear stabilization program has been worked out. This program is not only ours, it has undergone serious international expertise. The program is supported by our main trading partner - the Russian Federation," said the Prime Minister of Belarus.
He also added: "And we, without even waiting for the first currency inflows (the first tranche of the loan from the EurAsEC Anti-Crisis Fund. - BelTA note), will start implementing it next week. We agreed on this with Vladimir Putin. We discussed this topic in great detail with Alexei Kudrin as well."
Mikhail Myasnikovich reported: "On May 19, we actually agreed with the leadership of the Government of the Russian Federation on a so-called matrix, which provides for the corresponding obligations of the Belarusian side and the corresponding credit support from the EurAsEC Anti-Crisis Fund. It is planned that appropriate decisions will be made at the end of May - beginning of June, on the basis of which external borrowings will be provided."
"The first tranche of the loan is estimated at $800 million, and the second tranche, slightly more than $400 million, will be disbursed in early autumn," emphasized the Prime Minister of Belarus. The credit support is designed for three years and will amount to $3 billion in total.
Mikhail Myasnikovich noted that all approaches to providing such support have been agreed upon by the parties.
"But these are not the funds that can stabilize the situation on the currency market. This requires serious internal decisions, which we will make together with the National Bank literally on Monday-Tuesday," said the Prime Minister of Belarus.
According to him, these decisions "will define a kind of 'roadmap' in order to approach it well-prepared and carry out the necessary procedures." First of all, this concerns the reduction of money supply.
"I am confident that a safety cushion will be created to prevent speculative attacks on the ruble, including through borrowed funds. Work in this direction is underway," noted Mikhail Myasnikovich.
According to him, the unification of the national currency exchange rate will be carried out in the near future. This will happen in two stages. "At the first stage, decisions will be made to curb the increased demand, and after receiving the stabilization loan, the exchange rate will be formed based on supply and demand, which will reduce the expectations that are currently present," the Prime Minister said.
He added: "I absolutely do not rule out, as the economy is functioning quite stably, that there may even be a revaluation of the Belarusian ruble exchange rate."
Thus, according to Mikhail Myasnikovich, there are no unresolved issues today. "Everything is extremely clear: in what timeframe and what decisions to make. We know all this," he said.
Mikhail Myasnikovich also reported that in May, the population began to sell more foreign currency than to buy it at exchange offices. "Although small, there is a positive balance. For 18 days of May, it amounted to $34 million," the Prime Minister emphasized. -0-
BELTA