President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, in an interview to Reuters said that Minsk "is very grateful to the International Monetary Fund" for its support in the country's crisis time. "Though it was a small loan, a little more than three billion, but we'll remember it forever" Belarusian leader said.
«The trouble we had incited us to start looking for an understanding with these organizations. And they have supported us. We’ll remember it forever, we are people with memory», the head of state stressed, BelTA informs.
Speaking about economic relations with Western countries, Alexander Lukashenko underlined that they have «good progress» and «good results», but at the same time he declared that «this is a process of lost dreams as for the West, if we read what your politicians state, so and for our part». «We expected more of the West», stated the president of Belarus.
Lukashenko intends to continue the cooperation with the IMF
Belarusian leader also expressed «many thanks» to the World Bank to open credit lines for the implementation of social projects in Belarus and admitted that the loans from international financial institutions helped the country to overcome recession period, and therefore, according to him, the cooperation will continue.
«Today, the economy is on the rise. We’ve added 5-6% of GDP during this time. At the end of the year, will have about 11%. We’ve passed a period of cooperation with the IMF with honor and dignity. All conditions, they set before us, and those obligations we took, are done. Therefore, we have cooperated and will cooperate with them», the head of Belarusian state said.
According to Alexander Lukashenko, now Belarus does not need to ask for new loans from the IMF and «now, this collaboration is directed to advice services and recommendations». «These are reasonable recommendations (there are very clever economists-marketeers). It suits us: we have learnt a lot to from them and continue to learn», the president of Belarus stated.
Russia works with us from the position of «lopsided pragmatism», Lukashenko
With regard to relations with Russia, Belarusian head of state expressed Minsk’s willingness to work pragmatically, as it, he said, offered in Moscow, the press service of Alexander Lukashenko informs.
«But this pragmatism must not destroy all that has been accumulated to date. If the Russians, in their accounting department have decided that they create too much benefits for Belarusian people, then, I must say that this is a wrong account. It’s crooked, lopsided pragmatism», Belarusian leader said.
