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Weekly Lists
August 11, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 21
bne:Credit
Russia-led multinational bank forecasts 1.4% y/y Belarus economic growth in 2017
Serbia’s central bank keeps key policy rate unchanged for 13th consecutive month
Tajikistan pays off its debt to Iran
The Russia-led Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), which is the resources manager of the Eurasian Fund for Stabilisation and Development (EFSD), has revised upwards its forecast for the economic growth in Belarus this year by 0.1 percentage point (pp) to 1.4% year-on-year.
The move was attributed to better-than-expected economic performance of neighbouring Russia. The former Soviet republic's GDP contracted 3.9% y/y in 2015 after 1.6% y/y growth in 2014. Belarus has been badly hit by the crisis from sanctions and low oil prices affecting its traditional market of Russia.
According to official data, the GDP of Belarus increased by 1% y/y in January-June following 0.9% y/y growth in January-May.
The National Bank of Serbia (NBS) executive board decided to keep the key policy rate stable at 4% for the thirteenth consecutive month at its August meeting, the bank announced in a statement on August 10.
The NBS’s decision to not change the key policy rate again was guided by inflation factors and the new medium-term inflation projection. The board expects inflation to remain within the tolerance band of 3.0%±1.5 pp in the period ahead.
The Tajik Ministry of Finance has announced that Tajikistan has paid off its debts to Iran, Avesta reported on August 10. The report did not specify the size of the debt.
The Central Asian country last year announced it had paid off its debts to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The size of the country’s debt has mostly stayed unchanged at $2.3bn since 2016, however.
As of end-June 2017, the largest creditors of the country were the Chinese Export-Import Bank ($1.217bn), the World Bank ($299.9mn) and the Asian Development Bank ($227.5mn).