Finance Ministry admitted asking credit both from Russia and European Union
- 10.07.2009, 14:55
The Belarusian authorities expect to return to the topic of Russian loan.
The BelTA has been informed about that by Finance Minister Andrei Kharkavets. He also recalls the request to the EU about financial support.
“We didn’t ask concrete sums. The EU has a mechanism of providing macroeconomic financing. It is connected with the work of the IMF in the states which ask for such support,” the Finance Minister noted.
As said by Andrei Kharkavets, in order to find more sources of financing, in the future the authorities plan to enter international financial markets. “We are carrying out a constant monitoring of the situation, which shows that at present acceptable conditions haven’t been formed for the countries with the analogous credit ratings to take loans,” the Finance Minister of Belarus said.
Besides, the Belarusian authorities expect to return to discussion about granting a loan by Russia.
Kharkavets noted that the Russian side links granting $500 state loan which had been planed to be received in May this year, with giving the second tranche of stand-by loan by the IMF.
“As you already know, the IMF has come to a decision. Thus it confirmed that the measures of economic policy in Belarus are right, and that the country is able to pay its debts,” the finance minister said.
The Belarusian authorities also plan to continue discussing the issue of receiving 100 billion of Russian rubles with Russia.
“We expect that this loan could expand the use of the Russian ruble in bilateral accounts, rule out interruptions in bilateral trade, develop cooperation ties of Russian and Belarusian economic entities even more,” Andrei Kharkavets said.
He also said that Belarus intends to continue talks with Sberbank of Russia about the possibility of borrowing $2 billion against the state guarantees of the Russian Federation.
At present preparations are underway for holding bilateral consultations about getting Russian financial support for implementing the project to build a nuclear power plant in Belarus, added the Finance Minister.