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Belarusian president replaces central bank chief

18 July 2011 22:53 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko replaced on Monday the country’s central bank chief Pyotr Prokopovich with his former deputy Yury Alymov, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"He made mistakes, the government made mistakes, too, and I must face this. P. Prokopovich will continue to serve Belarus after his health improves," Lukashenko said.

The Belarusian president appointed Alymov as acting chairman of the central bank on June 20. The former first deputy chairman took over from Prokopovich because the latter had been on medical leave for several months after having a heart surgery.

At the end of May, the Belarusian central bank cut almost by half the value of the Belarusian ruble against the U.S. dollar, causing panic across the country. The bank then raised its benchmark interest rate by 2.0 percentage points to 20 percent, one of the highest in the world, in a bid to battle inflation.