Myasnikovich: “US Sanctions to have impact on economic situation of Belarus”

• 12.03.2008, 17:22

The chairman of the Academy of Sciences Mikhail Myasnikovich has stated that the U.S. sanctions threaten Belarusian economy.

The U.S. sanctions imposed against Belneftekhim concern and its subsidiaries are a display of power, but could later have impact on economic situation of Belarus, told the chairman of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of Belarus Mikhail Myasnikovich at a round table discussion on issues of import substitution in Minsk.

“Sanctions imposed by the U.S. to a large extent are a display of power, but this can have impact on our economic situation,” M. Myasnikovich said.

In this connection he noted that Belarus should be more careful in taking foreign loans.

“Today we are actively working with Russian banks. But even if a Russian bank has at least one U.S. share, the U.S. can make this Russian-American bank not operating with us,” M. Myasnikovich said. He noted that in 2007 in Belarus the growth of enterprises’ borrowed funds was 46.3%. “But we must understand that the state-owned sector of economy prevails in our country, and if these enterprises would turn out to be insolvent for this or that reason, foreign creditors would go to the state, and this won’t do good to our economy,” Myasnikovich stated.

As said by him, in 2007 Belarus received about $3 billion of foreign capital as short-term loans and import coverage reserves. Sometimes we attract foreign capital at a rate which exceeds the level of profitability which means we import capital which is intolerable for the economy,” M. Myasnikovich said.