“Uneasy” talks between Belarusian regime and the IMF

Vice premier Andrei Kabyakou said the talks between Belarus and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on granting $2 billion loan were uneasy.

“We are conducting active talks with the IMF. They are uneasy,” Andrei Kabyakou noted.

He emphasised that “we won’t take money on any terms, but take a loan for stabilization of certain processes in economy,” Interfax reports.

The vice premier thinks the IMF needs change its common approach to granting loans.

“Earlier, separate countries in crisis applied for a loan. But now the whole world has faced the crisis, so terms should be reviewed,” Andrei Kabyakou said.

Stanislau Bahdankevich, former head of the National bank explained in his recent interview to the Charter’97 press center why the Belarusian government has been in talks on granting a loan with the International Monetary Fund for the third week.

“The authorities haven’t agreed with the IMF so far, because it doesn’t grant credits for nothing. We must prepare a programme of reduction in foreign trade balance and inflation rate. It doesn’t give the whole sum of a loan, it gives parts of it: firstly $200,000, then next $200,000 if requirements of reforming programme are fulfilled and so on,” Stanislau Bahdankevich said.