The Belarusian government has developed a program to stabilize the economy

May 23, Minsk /BELTA/. The Belarusian government has developed a program to stabilize the economy. Belarusian Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich announced this on May 20 at a meeting with journalists, as reported by a BELTA correspondent. According to Mikhail Myasnikovich, the program has been reviewed by experts from the EurAsEC countries and was agreed upon with the leadership of the Russian Federation in Minsk on May 19. "Regarding the currency policy, a clear stabilization program has been worked out. This program is not only ours; it has undergone serious international expertise. The program is supported by our main trading partner, the Russian Federation," said the Prime Minister of Belarus. He also added: "And we will start implementing it as early as next week, without even waiting for the first currency inflows (the first tranche of the EurAsEC Anti-Crisis Fund loan. - BELTA's note). We agreed on this with Vladimir Putin. We discussed this topic in great detail with Alexei Kudrin as well." Mikhail Myasnikovich reported: "On May 19, we actually agreed with the leadership of the Russian Federation government on a so-called matrix, which outlines the respective obligations of the Belarusian side and the corresponding credit support from the EurAsEC Anti-Crisis Fund. It is planned that appropriate decisions will be made at the end of May - beginning of June, based on which external borrowings will be provided." "The first loan tranche is estimated at $800 million, and the second tranche, slightly over $400 million, will be disbursed around the beginning of autumn," emphasized the Prime Minister of Belarus. The credit support is designed for three years and will total $3 billion. Mikhail Myasnikovich noted that all approaches to providing such support have been agreed upon by the parties. "However, these are not the funds that can stabilize the situation in the currency market. For this, serious internal decisions are needed, which we will make together with the National Bank literally on Monday or Tuesday," said the Prime Minister of Belarus. According to him, these decisions "will define a kind of 'roadmap' to approach the situation well-prepared and complete the necessary procedures." First and foremost, this concerns reducing the money supply. "I am confident that a safety cushion will be created to prevent speculative attacks on the ruble, including through borrowed funds. Work in this direction is underway," noted Mikhail Myasnikovich. According to him, in the near future, the exchange rate of the national currency will be unified. This will happen in two stages. "At the first stage, decisions will be made to curb increased demand, and after receiving the stabilization loan, the exchange rate will be formed based on supply and demand, which will reduce the expectations that are currently present," said the Prime Minister. At the same time, he added: "I absolutely do not rule out, given that the economy is functioning quite stably, that there might even be a revaluation of the Belarusian ruble's exchange rate." Thus, according to Mikhail Myasnikovich, there are absolutely no unresolved issues today. "Everything is extremely clear: in what timeframe and what decisions to make. We know all of this," he said. Mikhail Myasnikovich also reported that in May, the population began selling more currency than buying it at exchange offices. "Although small, there is a positive balance. For the 18 days of May, it amounted to $34 million," emphasized the Prime Minister. -0-