Events

MINSK, 19 December (BelTA) – At the government conference held on 18 December Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko instructed the National Bank and the government to come up with a number of measures to preserve the country’s gold and foreign exchange reserves. The head of state mentioned his instructions as he visited the State Forensics Committee on 19 December, BelTA has learned.

“Yesterday I gave instructions to work out a number of relaxed measures that we could take in order not to burn our reserves too much,” said Alexander Lukashenko.

“I think that in the near future the National Bank and the government will keep the population and economic operators informed about the measures they are taking,” said the head of state.

Alexander Lukashenko quoted President of Russia Vladimir Putin, who had said the day before that the central bank should not burn foreign currency reserves. “But Russia had $500 billion in reserves, although they have about $400 billion left now. Their economic operators, gas companies, oil companies that work for export had huge reserves, too. He mentioned one example. He made a phone call and was told that that company had $3 billion that could be released onto the market. In other words, Russia had a huge amount of foreign currency to spare, yet Russians opted to release the ruble instead of burning the gold and foreign exchange reserves. The decision led to the ruble’s fall and they had to raise the refinancing rate,” said the Belarusian head of state.

The President remarked that the National Bank has levers to pull and they are well-known. “We will act depending on the circumstances,” he stressed. “If Belarusians rush to buy foreign currency, then the demand for foreign currency will go higher and the prices will go up. Once Belarusians stop doing that or start selling foreign currency instead of buying, then the exchange rate will drop”. All the instruments are well-known, he added.