Lies again

• 14.01.2009, 9:35

When visiting Belkommunmash enterprise, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said he had warned Belarusians about the devaluation on December 18. “I gave a hint, I said we wouldn’t hold the ruble,” he told.

According to him, some people even said that “Lukashenka myust have announced the devaluation of the national currency ten days before it happened.”

“It is absurd. Imagine, I would have announced this before New Year’s Day. People would have attacked banks instead of celebrating holidays. No one announces it beforehand. If some one can listen to me, I said it in an interview with journalists. I said something like that: well, we will devalue our currency by 10 per cent or so. Are these very big losses? Read my speech. I gave a hint there we wouldn’t hold the ruble,” BelaPAN quotes Lukashenka.

What was said

On December 18, Alyaksandr Lukashenka told in an interview to leading state mass media, the situation in the Belarusian economy would depend not on the authorities, but on people, “Komsomolskaya Pravda v Belarusi” notes.

“What an idiot will take his money from bank, if he can receive 20 per cent?” Lukashenka said.

The official exchange rate of the dollar against the ruble will remain 2,200 rubles till the end of 2008, he said.

“The rate shouldn’t grow further. We have promised to people. I told head of the National Bank: keep in mind, my word mustn’t be broken. New year is coming -5 per cent is nothing. Take 5 per cent of 2,200. Is this sum big of our people? But we don’t afford it in order not to provoke collapse. We have no need to fell down anything,” the Belarusian ruler assured.