Lukashenka Asks Moscow For $600 Mln Loan

In 2019, 65% of Belarus’s external public debt payments will fall on the Russian loans.

Belarus turned to the Russian Federation with a proposal to provide the republic with a state loan of $ 600 million to refinance its debt obligations to the Russian Federation this year. This was announced on Wednesday by Finance Minister Maksim Yermalovich, as he was responding to a TASS question.

“We cooperate with our colleagues from the Russian Federation to work out the draft loan agreement, but the decision of the Government of the Russian Federation regarding the granting of this loan has not been made,” said the Minister of Finance of Belarus.

In 2019, 65% of Belarus’s foreign debt payments will fall on the loans from Russia and the Russia-controlled Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development.

The total amount of the state debt payments of Belarus in 2019 will make BYN 8.736 billion, including: to cover the external public debt - BYN 5.8 billion, domestic public debt - BYN 2.929 billion.

BYN 2.929 billion (33.5% of total payments) will be allocated to redeem bonds in the domestic market, BYN 2.749 billion (31.5%) will go to Russia’s loans, and BYN 1.343 billion (15.4%) - to the Chinese banks loans. BYN 1 billion (12%) will go to cover the loans of the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development; BYN 363.9 million (4.2%) - for payments on bonds in foreign financial markets, BYN 274.4 million (3, 1%) - to the World Bank loans. Other state debts payments will make BYN 29.1 million (0.3%).

At the end of 2018, it became known that an agreement had been reached on granting a state loan of $ 630 million for Belarus by Russia. However, the expediency of attracting these funds will depend on the situation with the payment of external debt, said Finance Minister Maksim Yermalovich.

In the first quarter of 2019, Belarus also wants to receive from the EFSD the final seventh tranche of the $200 million loan. Due to the fact that the terms of the loan provision were postponed, the EFSD Council recently made changes to the reform program of Belarus, supported by a $ 2 billion EFSD financial loan, of which Minsk has already received $ 1.8 billion.