The situation in the foreign exchange market in Belarus is still unstable. Foreign currency fever has led not only to its scarcity in the country, but also to the continued depreciation of the Belarusian ruble abroad. For example, devaluation of the Belarusian Ruble against the official rate of the Belarusian National Bank has already reached 70% in neighboring Latvia.
April 19, the Latvian bank Rietumu Banka is selling dollar at Br5,2 thousand (purchase — Br4.7 thousand). Accordingly, the bank has devalued the Belarusian ruble by 69% against the rate of the National Bank of Belarus. At the same time the bank works only with the Belarusian currency transfer. The purchase price of EUR at Rietumu Banka has amounted to Br7.4 thousand (sales — Br6.6 thousand).
Parex banka, one of the few Lithuanian banks, working with the Belarusian rubles in cash, has set the Belarusian ruble exchange rate close to the rate of National Bank of Belarus. So, April 19, the dollar could be bought at nearly Br3.9 thousand (sale — Br3.5 thousand) in a bank at a railway station in Vilnius. Accordingly, devaluation of the Belarusian ruble was 27% against the rate of National Bank. Euro buying rate was Br5.5 thousand (sales — Br5.1 thousand). The devaluation reached 25%.
Ruble Devalued by 80% on Interbank Market of Belarus
Dollar purchase transactions in the interbank trading were carried out at the exchange rate of Br5.049 on April 18. Given that the company added the allowed 10% to the official rate of the National Bank in setting the exchange rate, as well as the cost of marketing services, the depreciation of the Belarusian ruble against the dollar accounted for about 80% for the enterprises. This was reported by a source in one of the Belarusian banks, Ale.by.
Meanwhile, the cost of a basket of currencies has amounted to Br1 133.67 on April 20; the Belarusian ruble has appreciated by 0.08% against the previous value. Overall, however,the Belarusian ruble has fallen by 7.49% since the beginning of the year .
According to the National Bank, ruble has fallen by 0.46% against the dollar. If the dollar rate, set by the National Bank on April 19, amounted to Br3.060, the exchange dollar rate is already Br3.074 on April 20. Similar, though less significant changes, have happened to the euro rate: the rate on April 19 — Br381.92, on April 20 — Br4 382.6. Respectively, ruble-to-euro has fallen by 0.02%. The Belarusian ruble has appreciated by 0.46% against the Russian ruble. Rate has fallen from Br108.65 to Br108.15.
As Telegraf previously reported, the Belarusian government and National Bank have decided to introduce an alternative exchange rate on the OTC market as a way out of the currency crisis. The previously established 10% deviation in formation of the Belarusian ruble exchange rate has been lifted in the interbank sector.
