A Belarusian Man Converted 10,000 Rubles Into Dollars—and Ended Up With Five Different Amounts

• 15.08.2026, 15:22

A resident of the Gomel Region wanted to find out how much his savings were actually worth.

A resident of the Gomel region wanted to find out how much his savings in dollars were worth. However, the calculations turned out to be more interesting than he expected, according to Myfin.by.

Mikhail started saving money at the beginning of the year. By August, he had saved up 10,000 rubles.

“I took out almost a thousand from my vacation pay and added a little more to make it a round number,” the man said. “And I wanted to figure out how much that was in dollars.”

A simple currency conversion quickly turned into a little experiment.

“When I opened the National Bank’s exchange rates, it turned out they listed not only the U.S. dollar but also, for example, the Australian and Canadian dollars,” says Mikhail. “Just for fun, I decided to calculate my savings in different currencies.” I did the calculations on August 10.

As a result, the same 10,000 rubles yielded five different results:

3,392 U.S. dollars;

4,345 Singapore dollars;

4,755 Canadian dollars;

4,817 Australian dollars;

5,775 New Zealand dollars.

Where do these figures come from?

These are the official exchange rates of the Belarusian ruble against foreign currencies, which the National Bank sets daily.

A MYFIN journalist verified the calculations using the NBRB’s exchange rates as of August 10—the results matched Mikhail’s calculations, taking rounding into account.

Thus, his stash was worth roughly between $3,392 and $5,775, depending on which currency was used as the basis for the conversion.