Europe

Europe

Belarus receives first tranche of loan from EurAsEC

22 June 2011 01:20 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Eurasian Economic Community ( EurAsEC) has transferred on Tuesday the first 800 million U.S. dollars tranche of an emergency loan to Belarus to stabilize its finances, local media reported.

"Belarus fulfilled all formal commitments yesterday, and now the money is on the way, has already been sent," Russian Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin said.

An agreement of a 3 billion-U.S.-dollar loan from EurAsEC anti- crisis fund for Belarus was signed in June 2011. Belarus will receive the allocated money in installments within three years: 1. 24 billion in 2011, about 800 million in 2012 and 1 billion in 2013.

At the end of May, the National Bank of Belarus devalued the Belarusian ruble by 56 percent against the U.S. dollar, causing panic across the country. People in Belarus rushed to buy goods and lined up for days at exchange offices for foreign currency, trying to protect their savings.