Optimists from National Bank hope for a Chinese miracle

The National Bank and the government of Belarus can only hope for a miracle before the debt collapse of 2013.

The Central Banks of Belarus and China keep negotiating renewal of the swop deal for purchasing 20 billion yuans (around $3.2 billion), which was closed in September this year, a source in the financial circles told the Interfax-Zapad  news agency.

“At the moment the parties are trying to agree upon a project of a swop deal for 20 billion yuans. For the Belarusian party the conditions are changing for better compared to the previous deal”, - the source said.

In his opinion, “the deal’s prospects are optimistic”.

As it was reported earlier, in September 2012 the National Bank of Belarus (NBB) announced the closure of the swop deal with the People’s Bank of China for 6 billion yuans (around $950 million). This amount represented a practical retrieval of assets, which was carried out in November 2010 in the framework of the center bank’s agreement concluded in March 2009 over 20 billion yuans. The deal was sealed with the aim of assisting to the bilateral trade and investment for the benefit of economic development of both countries. However the NBB could not use the received yuans for international payments for the reason of the restrictions that were in force in China. The NBB also did not carry out derivative deals with yuans.

First deputy chairman of the NBB Yury Alymau told the Interfax-Zapad news agency at the beginning of August that the NBB was counting on a new dea with China on better conditions. “Currently the work is being carried out on signing a new swop agreement on improved conditions”, - Yury Alymau said then.