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Belarus may ask IMF for help

Belarus may ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a loan, Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich said Tuesday following his meeting with Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

“However, this would be a rather lengthy process,” he noted, according to the presidential press office. “The Fund’s team is to stay in Belarus in June on a routine mission. We won’t discuss this issue with it, but proceeding from the report that the team will draw up, we’ll be able to predict the course of developments in our relations with this influential international organization.”

The team will visit Belarus within the framework of the Fund’s post-program monitoring process and write a report on the country’s economic performance, IMF Resident Representative Nataliya Kalyadzina said in an interview with BelaPAN earlier this month.

“The primary purpose will be to assess the current economic situation and exchange views on economic measures needed to be taken,” Ms. Kalyadzina said. “The macroeconomic forecast will also be under discussion. We will adjust it and draw up recommendations that we will propose to the government and the National Bank for consideration.”

The IMF normally conducts post-program monitoring of economic developments in member countries following the expiry of their loan arrangement with the Fund.

Belarus obtained a total of about $3.5 billion under its stand-by arrangement with the Fund that expired in March 2010.

IMF experts are to visit the country every six months and prepare reports on the country’s economic situation and performance.

Christopher Jarvis, head of the IMF’s mission to Belarus, told reporters in Minsk on early April that in order to receive the Fund’s assistance, the government should have a credible economic policy program and an ambitious program of structural reform. //BelaPAN