Events

MINSK, 16 March (BelTA) – The International Monetary Fund takes a favorable view of the first steps made by the renewed Belarusian government, BelTA learned from David Hofman, head of the IMF mission to Belarus, on 16 March.

Thus, the National Bank has started the transition to a more flexible exchange rate while the monetary management policy has been toughened, stated David Hofman.

“It is important to see these initial steps through to the end and decisively toughen the macroeconomic policy later on, including by means of tight control over the domestic demand for the sake of promptly reducing the existing internal and external misbalances,” said the IMF mission head.

Apart from that, IMF experts believe that the National Bank should complete the transition to a free floating exchange rate and introduce the money supply targeting regime in full measure for the sake of reducing inflation to one-digit figures.

A scheduled mission of the International Monetary Fund has been working in Belarus since 5 March. It is a regular annual mission, during which consultations on article IV are held. In other words, the mission is tasked with the annual survey of the development of the Belarus economy. Similar surveys are carried out in other IMF member states.

The International Monetary Fund is a specialized UN institution headquartered in Washington, USA. 27 December 1945 is the IMF’s official foundation date. Belarus has been an IMF member since 1992. 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.