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Visiting IMF team discusses Belarus` loan request

An International Monetary Fund team that arrived in Minsk on June 1 holds discussions with the authorities about the possibility of the Fund granting a loan to Belarus, IMF Resident Representative Nataliya Kalyadzina told BelaPAN on Thursday.

The team is staying in Minsk within the framework of the IMF’s post-program monitoring process to write a report on the country’s economic situation and performance.

“The mission uses the occasion to exchange with the authorities views about next possible steps in response to their request for a program that could be supported by the International Monetary Fund,” said Ms. Kalyadzina.

Ms. Kalyadzina would not comment on speculation that the IMF could reject the loan request on political grounds.

In particular, Stanislaw Bahdankevich, a former head of the National Bank of Belarus, earlier warned that the IMF would not provide any assistance to Minsk until it continued its crackdown on political opponents.

Earlier this year, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development recalibrated the EBRD’s operational approach to Belarus within its existing strategy in the wake of “the negative political developments surrounding the December 2010 presidential election and the international community’s continuing concerns regarding treatment of the political opposition, civil society and independent media” in the country.

The Council of Ministers and the National Bank of Belarus applied to the IMF for the stabilization loan on May 31. Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich told reporters in Minsk that Belarus was seeking to borrow $3.5 billion to $8 billion from the IMF.

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