IMF wants to see reforms before new credit to Belarus

Oct 17, 2011, 9:36 GMT

Moscow - Belarus will have to enact major economic reforms to get new loans from the International Monetary Fund, a fund spokesmen said Monday.

Belarus' government led by President Aleksandr Lukashenko must not only promise an overhaul of its mostly state-controlled economy but put the reforms visibly into effect, before the fund would consider advancing the country new credits, said Chris Jarvis, head of the IMF mission to Belarus.

Belarusian Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich, meanwhile, in a statement said Minsk hoped to obtain between three and seven million dollars in new IMF loans.

The cash-strapped Lukashenko regime in recent months has removed most supports to the national currency the Belarusian rouble, hiked the prices of state-supplied energy, cut government financing of state-owned companies and slashed pensions and health benefits.

The reforms were intended to balance the national budget and to help Belarus qualify for new IMF loans, Myasnikovich said.

Belarusians officials have said they plan in 2012 to privatize major state-owned corporations, further reduce social spending, tighten credit and cut imports.

'We want to see the proposals for macro-economic policies for 2012 and we want to see if the president (lukashenko) will support them,' Jarvis said. 'But we (the IMF) are not setting any political conditions.'

An IMF delegation on Friday ended two-week visit to Minsk for talks with the Lukashenko government. Belarusian officials have predicted a possible agreement with the IMF on new loans as early as December.

Badly-hit by rising prices for imported Russian energy and falling demand for its own exports, Belarus is mired in its worst economic crisis since the early 1990s.

Belarus borrowed a total 3.4 billion dollars from the fund in 2009 and 2010.

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