Events

MINSK, 4 March (BelTA) – An International Monetary Fund mission will arrive in Belarus on 5 March, BelTA learned from the IMF Office in Minsk.

The IMF experts will work in Belarus until 16 March. "This is a regular annual mission who will come for the Article IV consultations,” the IMF Office informed. The mission will do the annual review of the economy of Belarus. Similar reviews are conducted in other IMF member states.

The IMF experts are scheduled to have meetings in the President’s Administration, the National Bank, and the Economy Ministry. The mission will be led by David Hoffman.

Finance Minister Vladimir Amarin announced earlier about the March visit of the IMF mission. According to him, Belarus does not rule out any possibilities in terms of financial cooperation, but there is an understanding that the consideration of these issues will require some time.

From January 2009 through April 2010 Belarus accomplished a standby program backed by a $3.5 billion IMF loan. It allowed the country to secure positive dynamics of some economic and monetary indicators.

From 1992 to 2008 Belarus applied twice to the IMF for loans: $217.2 million through the Systemic Transformation Facility (SFT) and $77.4 million under the mechanism of Stand-By Arrangements. In February 2005, Belarus fully repaid these loans from the IMF.

IMF operation in Belarus is aimed at working together with the government and the National Bank in preparing economic policy documents, focusing on taxation, budgeting, monetary management, exchange rate, and trade policy for the sake of achieving considerable economic growth, low inflation and a stable balance of payments.

The International Monetary Fund is a specialized UN institution headquartered in Washington, USA. 27 December 1945 is the IMF's official founding date. Belarus has been an IMF member since 1992. The country's quota stood at 386.4 million SDR ($542.1 million) at the beginning of 2013.