Belarus hasn’t received second tranche of loan from Russia
9- 2.03.2009, 10:31
Belarus hasn’t received a Russian loan which was to be received by the end of February.
As the BelaPAN has been informed in the National bank, the second tranche of the Russian loan hasn’t been received to the accounts of the Finance Ministry in the National bank.
The finance ministry does not comment on the situation with the second tranche of the loan.
The first tranche of the Russian loan of 1 billion dollar was received by the Finance Ministry of Belarus on November 18, 2008. The state loan was given to Belarus for 15 years at Libor+3% with 5-year adjournment of repaying.
It was planned that the second tranche of the loan, $1 billion, would be remitted to Belarus before the end of February 2009 after a join actions program on economic cooperation signed. In the end of January Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin promised to accelerate giving the second part of the sum.
On February 27 during his visit to St. Petersburg Belarusian Prime Minister Syarhei Sidorski stated that the document on giving the second tranche of $1 billion of the Russian loan was to be signed in Moscow soon. Belarusian government experts visited Moscow last week for that.
Sidorski noted that the Finiance Ministry of Russia addressed its Belarusian partners with a request to divide the second part of the loan in two more tranches in February and March, $500 mln each.
On February 24 during the visit to Minsk Motor Plant Alyaksandr Lukashenka stated that money of Russian and Western loans are used for supporting the national currency.
“It is certainly a great support for us, but it is nothing considering volumes of our economy,” the Belarusian leader stated. “So far we are saved by that. But nobody will help us in full if the economy won’t work”.
It is also known that beside the stabilization loan, the Belarusian authorities asked a loan of 100 billion Russian rubles from Russia in exchange to transition to Russian rubles in mutual accounts. A decision on that hasn’t been adopted yet.
According to the Finance Ministry, the external state debt of Belarus in 2008 has grown by $1 billion 382.2 mln, or by 59.2%, and was equal to $3 billion 718.9 mln as of January 1, 2009.
