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Administrative measures taken by National Bank in exchange market may leave economy in very sorry state, economist says

The administrative measures taken by the National Bank of Belarus in the exchange market may leave the economy in a very sorry state, economist Syarhey Balykin told BelaPAN.

On November 16, the National Bank banned importers from buying foreign currency to pay for goods or services in advance.

"Such measures in fact can be taken to prevent market panic, but they should be extremely short-lived and remain in place for just a few days, or, even better, a few hours," Mr. Balykin said. "If they are introduced for a long term in our partially free economic conditions, one can expect a recurrence of what we saw a few years ago [in the late 1990s and the early 2000s]. I mean the return of gray schemes and the emergence of a black exchange market."