Page 23 - BELRptAug18

7.0 FX
Belarus -FX 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Currency (units per USD) (eop) 0.8350 0.8570 0.9510 1.1850 1.8569 1.9656 2.029
Currency (units per EUR) (average)
0.8051 1.0778 1.1834 1.3220 1.7828 2.2005 2.1783
Currency (units per USD) (average) 0.4975 0.8337 0.8880 1.0224 1.5926 1.9885 1.9318
Source: National Bank of Belarus
7.1 FX issues
The National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB) has ended mandatory FX sales requirements as the economic situation stabilises. The national bank has been gradually reducing the capital controls imposed in the crisis years and nixed a mandatory currency surrender requirement in August, the NBRB said at the start of August. The presidential decree on abolishing the mandatory sale of foreign currency came into force the day it was officially published, 31 July. As of 1 August Belarusian commercial entities no longer have to sell their foreign currency proceeds, including money acquired before the decree came into force. The amount of foreign currency that Belarusian companies earned from exports but were obliged to sell to the national bank has been gradually reduced and is now zero. Previously Belarusian companies had to sell 10% of their foreign currency proceeds. However, they had been voluntarily selling over 47% of their foreign currency proceeds to support the cash-strapped government. While the mandatory sale size was reduced from 30% to 10%, the amount of foreign currency sold by Belarusian companies on a daily basis went up from the equivalent of $62mn in
23 BELARUS Country Report August 2018 www.intellinews.com