On Wednesday, May 12, in Minsk there starts to work the next mission of the International Monetary Fund with the main objective to discuss the prospects and forms of further cooperation with Belarus. The head of the IMF mission, which will stay in Belarus until May 25, is Chris Jarvis.
As reported in the representation of the fund in Belarus, the mission’s members intend to discuss with Belarusian leadership the issues of socio-economic development, monetary and fiscal policy, BelTA informs.
Meanwhile, the head of information department of the National Bank of Belarus, Anatoly Drozdov, stated in an interview to Belarusian service of Radio Liberty that the question of addressing to the IMF for new loans «will be decided after the mission finishes its work».
«It will depend on several conditions. For the moment, at the highest level, it was stated that we were not going (to ask for loans from the IMF)», said the representative of the National Bank of Belarus.
Belarus needs new IMF loans, Bogdankevich
In his turn, the former head of the NBB, Stanislav Bogdankevich, believes that Belarus can’t go without new IMF loans. «If we consider that, as it was before, we have a complicated situation in the economy, that trade deficit is expected to be significant this year’s, then we need the IMF support», noted the economist.
«So, if I were the authorities I would not deny to develop a new joint program of economic reforms and to receive the next stand-by. Because the main IMF objective is to maintain foreign exchange reserves to prevent a fall of national currency», Stanislav Bogdankevich underlined.
«But the authorities do not apparently want to be bound by any obligations to the IMF. Because it issues credits when the government and the Fund coordinate economic program of further reforms, further liberalization and privatization. I think, the authorities are reluctant to implement radical market reforms, which should have been done in Belarus long ago», said the former chairman of the National Bank.
