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IMF Executive Board to hold discussion on Minsk`s loan request on Monday

The International Monetary Fund (IMF)`s Executive Board is scheduled to hold a discussion Monday to consider the Belarusian government’s request for a bailout loan of between $3.5 billion and $8 billion.

The IMF’s post-program monitoring process, aimed at studying Belarus’ economic performance, will also be on the agenda.

An IMF team led by Chris Jarvis stayed in Belarus between June 1 and 13 to assess the authorities’ economic policies in the framework of the post-program monitoring. It drew up a report on its findings.

Belarus borrowed a total of $3.46 billion under its stand-by arrangement with the Fund in 2009 and 2010.

On May 31, Belarus filed the new loan request with the IMF.

Natallya Kalyadzina, the IMF`s resident representative, said earlier this month that the Belarusian government needed to support its loan request with a well-defined anti-crisis program providing for macroeconomic measures, including structural reforms.

The government`s efforts to deal with a difficult situation in the foreign exchange market resulting in multiple exchange rates of the rubel are at the top of the agenda, along with several other issues. Belarus has been experiencing the shortages of foreign currency since this past spring. Alyaksandr Lukashenka promised in July to take a “fundamental decision” regarding the situation at a government conference in the latter half of August, but no decisions were announced at the August 25 meeting, with the Belarusian leader vowing to take them later. //BelaPAN