Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 19 November (BelTA) – The Belarusian side and the International Monetary Fund are almost ready to sign a loan program, Belarus’ Economy Minister Vladimir Zinovsky told journalists on 19 November, BelTA has leaned.

“Considerable progress has been achieved. We hope the program with the IMF will be signed. A meeting with Belarus’ Prime Minister will be held today. I think it will give a finishing touch to the document. We are close to signing the program, if nothing has changed overnight because the negotiations are intensive, almost 14-16 hours per day,” Vladimir Zinovsky noted. The negotiations are conducted in closed meetings.

When asked about the size of the loan, he said that it will be “up to $3 billion for three years.”

BelTA reported earlier that a staff team of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is working in Belarus on 9-19 November. The team is led by Peter Dohlman.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization headquartered in Washington, DC. It was founded on 27 December 1945. Belarus has been an IMF member since 1992. IMF's activities in Belarus are aimed at working together with the government and the National Bank in preparing economic policy documents with a focus on taxation, budgeting, monetary management, exchange rate, and trade policy in order to achieve considerable economic growth, low inflation and a stable balance of payments.