Soon Belarus will owe Russia about 13% of next year’s budget

On Monday Belarusian officials discussed with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin a possibility to receive another stabilization loan. Unluckily, neither after an hour and a half of talks with Alyaksandr Lukashenka, nor after two hours of talks with Syarhei Sidorski concrete agreements have been named. But the Belarusian officials do count on a loan still.

“We are speaking about conditions analogous to the last year’s loan (at a small rate for 15 years with a 5 year grace period). Technical details have been agreed upon already,” Finance Minister Andrei Kharkavets has promised optimistically.

The Belarusian side expects to receive money in November. The question is, what this money would be spent for. It should be reminded that Belarus has $1.7 billion indebtedness to Russia for today. And it wants to ask for 2 more. As a result, we would owe the neighbouring country about 13% of the budget of the country for the next year.

“This loan is as a security airbag foe Belarus in the situation of the world financial crisis,” the Fincance Minister said vaguely.

But the economist Leanid Zaika is convinced that we won’t salt away this money, “Komsomolskaya Pravda in Belarus” writes.

“We will pay for Russian gas with the money,” the expert is convinced.

According to him, it is profitable for the neighbours to give the loan to Belarus. “What are these 2 billions for them?! They are losing hundreds of billions in 5 minutes now. It is more profitable for them to lend them,” the economist said.