Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 21 July (BelTA) – Belarus has no intention of increasing its external state debt, BelTA learned from Prime Minister of Belarus Mikhail Myasnikovich on 21 July.

“In no way will we follow the path of increasing the external state debt. We will put our efforts into repaying the existing debt as much as possible,” said the Prime Minister.

In his words, plans have been made to spend the $1.5 billion that Belarus will earn in 2015 as export duties on oil products to repay the existing debt. “So we plan to spend the $1.5 billion from export customs duties that we used to transfer to the Russian Federation on repaying the external debt. The plans are part of the state budget bill, which is now in development,” remarked the Prime Minister.

Speaking about servicing the external state debt and the relevant transactions, Mikhail Myasnikovich said that the year 2014 and the next year are rather complicated. “But we are managing to go through this peak and the currency market will experience no shocks,” he stressed.

The Prime Minister also specified that it is necessary to spend about $4 billion in 2014 and as much in 2015 on servicing and repaying the external state debt.