Conflict with Russia affects Belarusian ruble’s stability :: Charter'97 :: News

Belarus is to pay the maximum price for the Russian gas starting with July, while it paid only $ 55 per 1 cubic meter of gas in the first half of 2007. Now not only has Belarus to pay $ 100, but the country must compensate the lower price of January-June.

Meanwhile the state has already started evaluating the losses caused by the gas conflict with Russia. According to Interfax, the budget has lost $ 200mln, since now Belarus sells less oil products abroad. Moreover, Belarus has to spend more on Russian resources and goods: it cost $ 2bln more to purchase Russian resources and goods than to sell, within January-April.

- It affects the stability of our ruble, - economist of a Belarusian research center Aliaksandar Chubryk told the newspaper “KP v Belarusi”. - We must get currency somewhere.

The credit that Belarus requests from Russia can help out of this situation. That’s the fastest and easiest way of getting money. According to the Russian newspaper “Kommersant”, now it is a matter of $ 2bln, not $ 1.5bln of debt.

- Why can a need for more money appear Belarus?

- This is a cheap credit with a pretty low loan interest rate. If you come to a bank to get a credit for $ 5mln, and they offer a very low, nearly zero loan interest rate, would you ask $ 50mln too? - Aliaksandar Chubryk cited an example. - Even if Belarus allocates the money borrowed from Russia in foreign banks, the Belarusian state will earn more than it will have to pay back to Russia.

Nevertheless, Russia hasn’t decided yet whether it will loan such a lump sum of money to Belarus. According to “Kommersant”, the Belarusians can get the credit only for substitution of the cash gap of the budget. In other words, in case there are no funds in the Belarusian budget for the expenses planned, Belarus will be granted the necessary amount of money.

- Our budget cannot have a cash gap of $ 2bln. These terms indicate that the Russians don’t want to let Belarus earn on their credit; they want their money spent on payments for their gas only.