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IMF approves $700 million for Belarus

22 October 2009 12:58 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA-Economics. The International Monetary Fund approved a $700 million loan payment for Belarus and praised the former Soviet republic for policy steps including its currency devaluation and tighter fiscal and monetary policy.
Belarus, a conduit for a fifth of Russian gas exports to Europe, has received $2.23 billion under its bailout program, the IMF said in a statement late yesterday. The Washington-based fund has agreed to lend the nation about $3.6 billion.
The IMF, which has handed out more than $65 billion to eastern European nations to fight the financial crisis and subsequent economic recessions, in August urged Belarus to sell assets, curb lending and raise utility prices to cope with the first contraction in output in more than a decade.
Belarus devalued its ruble in January, pegging it to a basket of dollars, euros and Russian rubles. The central bank in June widened its exchange-rate band to 10 percent of its target basket to make the currency more flexible. The following month, it banned issuing retail loans denominated in foreign currencies to shore up the ruble and curb risks to bank assets as the economic slump erodes borrowersâ€™ ability to repay debt.
The countryâ€™s reserves, calculated using IMF methodology, were $3.88 billion as of September, according to the central bank. The stockpile has fallen from a record $4.75 billion reached on April 1, 2008.