Belarusian regime ready go into debt :: Charter'97 :: News

Today Economy Ministry of Belarus has stated that it thinks about possible attracting untied credits for $1.2 billion from China. Earlier Belarusian government asked Russia to give $1.5 billion stabilization credit to Belarus. “No we can judge the quality of Belarusian government’s work. It is not going to deal with the reasons of crisis in the economy of Belarus; it is just trying to patch holes with the help of the easiest way, considering the short term perspective, to run into debt. Thus the government is destroying one of the few positive results of its policy, a very low foreign debt,” told a well-known Belarusian economist Yaraslau Ramanchuk to the Charter’97 press-center, commenting on the recent initiatives of the government.

According to the economist, “today Belarusian government is trying to support the economic “air bubble” artificially. The bubble had been filled with the help of oil inflow, earnings from metals trade and fertilizers trade”.

“In the situation when external context has changed, the policy of the Belarusian government remains the same. We have started to splash money and to invest in projects which would hardly be effective. In 2-3 years we can lose our debt position, increase budget expenses for external debt service. It would turn into shifting responsibility to the future generation, which would face a much harsher external situation,” Yaralsau Ramanchuk believes.

Yaraslau Ramanchuk compares today’s situation in Belarusian economy with the situation in the economies of Mexico, New Zealand, Thailand. In different periods they acted the same: they incurred debt while it was possible, while changing nothing in the country, and as a result faced rather harsh financial crises. “Belarus won’t avoid this outcome,” the economist is convinced.