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Belarusian Finance Ministry to complete talks with China Development Bank on ¥3.5bn loan

MINSK, 9 July (BelTA) – The Belarusian Finance Ministry has almost finished negotiations with China Development Bank on a ¥3.5 billion loan. Belarusian Deputy Finance Minister Andrei Belkovets made the relevant statement at the Fitch Ratings conference “Belarus in 2019: Review of the macroeconomic situation and the banking sector” on 9 July, BelTA has learned.

The official said: “We intend to borrow $0.6 billion abroad [in 2019] without resorting to bonds. We initially counted on a loan from the Russian Federation. Today the matter of getting the Russian loan has been postponed a bit but as an alternative we’ve come to terms with Chinese creditors [China Development Bank]. Today we will finish the talks and will replace the Russian loan with a loan from our Chinese partners.”

The total volume of payments on the external state debt in 2019 is estimated at roughly $3.2 billion. “It is a planned figure. It can be slightly lower than that. We have some leeway for the potential growth of floating rates, differences in currency exchange rates,” Andrei Belkovets explained. Of the sum $1.1 billion will be spent to service the external state debt while $2.1 billion will be used to pay off the debt. According to Andrei Belkovets, the money needed to service the debt comes from foreign currency revenues of the state budget.

BelTA reported earlier that by the end of 2019 Belarus intends to borrow ¥3.5 billion from China Development Bank or the equivalent of over $500 million.

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