National Bank Expecting Another Collapse of Belarusian Rouble :: Charter'97 :: News

In Belarusian economy a number of negative tendencies have formed. They do not contribute to reinforcement of the Belarusian rouble. It was said at the press conference in Minsk by the chairman of the National Bank of Belarus Piotr Prakapovich.

As said by him, BelaPAN reports, it concerns first of all the state of the foreign trade balance of the country and the problem of attraction of foreign investment. In January-February of this year the volume of export has dropped by 9.1%, and import has grown by 2.9%. As a result, negative balance (69.4 million) has been formed, while in the first two months of the last year it was positive and was equal to USD 82.3 million.

As Prakapovich emphasized, the situation in attracting foreign investment, including direct ones, remains unsatisfactory. In January-February the sum of the direct investment has been equal to miserable USD 17.9 million. Prakapovich said that a monthly sum of investment should have been four times as big. He reminded that according to predictions, this year the volume of direct investment must reach USD 400 million. Export should grow, and not drop, at a pace faster than in other branches of economy.