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Eastern Europe
April 28, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 15
Belarus receives $300mn tranche from Russia-led institution
bne IntelliNews
Belarus has received a new $300mn tranche from a $2bn stand-by loan with the Russia-led Eurasian Fund for Stabilisation and Development (EFSD) in 2016, the finance ministry in Minsk said in a statement published on April 26.
Minsk fulfilled the requirements for receiving the third tranche, which were specified in a loan agreement signed between Belarus and the EFSD, it added.
Earlier, the EFSD suspended allocation of new tranches to Belarus after two tranches totalling $800mn were provided to Minsk. While this was supposedly for technical reasons, political ten- sions between Minsk and Moscow are seen as the likely cause of the delay.
Minsk is also trying to negotiate a new $3bn support package with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but the efforts are being obstructed by the Belarusian leadership’s rejection of lib- eral economic reforms necessary for securing a loan agreement. According to the IMF, a lender- supported programme requires the Belarusian leadership to show “strong commitment at the highest level to consistent macroeconomic poli- cies and deep, market-oriented reforms”.
The GDP of Belarus increased by 0.3% year-on- year in January-March, the Belstat state statistics committee reported on April 17 as the country’s economy resumed growth after more than two years of recession. GDP was down 2.6% year-on- year in January-December 2016, while the econ-
omy contracted by 3.9% y/y in 2015 after 1.6% y/y growth in 2014.
The GDP of Belarus will increase by 1.7% year-on- year in 2017, Economy Minister Vladimir Zinovskiy said in a televised interview on April 23.
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