Page 31 - BELRptFeb19

7.1 FX issues
Since 1 October 2017 the amount of a company’s income in foreign currency subject to mandatory sale has been reduced from 20% to 10%. This regulatory measure dates back to 1996 and the rate of mandatory foreign currency conversion has ranged from 10% to 60%. According to the Main Directions of Monetary Policy adopted by the Belarusian Government, mandatory sale of foreign currency will be totally abolished in 2018.
Additionally, during the last days of 2017, the National Bank abolished target purchase of foreign currency and approved a new version of the Instruction on currency exchange transactions. Starting from 11 April 2018, companies will be no longer be obliged to strictly adhere to the purpose for which foreign currency is purchased.
In 2018 Belarusians sold $1.1bn worth of foreign currency more than they bought , BelTA learned from the statistics released by the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB). In 2018 natural persons sold the equivalent of $9.089bn in cash and cashless forms and bought $7.974bn worth of foreign currency. The net sale of foreign currency by natural persons was close to $1.115bn. In 2018 Belarusian corporations sold the equivalent of $20.040bn and bought $20.712bn worth of foreign currency. In 2018 non-residents of Belarus sold $618.3mn worth of foreign currency and bought $124.6mn.
31 BELARUS Country Report February 2019 www.intellinews.com