Lukashenko Says Belarus Applied For $1.5 bln Loan To Pay For Energy
Prime-Tass
Belarus has applied for a U.S. $1.5 billion loan from Russia to pay for energy resources, President Alexander Lukashenko told reporters on Tuesday.
According to him, the loan was discussed during “the major row, which ended in a gas and oil conflict.”
“I told the Russian administration they could raise energy prices as high as they wished, but we were unable to pay for gas and oil until our economy recovered. We told Russia to support us [and thus provide indirect support for their own companies] for decent interests. The Russian side promised to consider this issue,” Lukashenko said, quoted by his press service.
At the same time, according to him, “the situation is far from catastrophic”. “Our GDP keeps growing almost 10% every month [compared with the 2006 figures], but this loan will help us prevent any destabilization,” the president added.
Belarus and Russia plan to hold consultations in mid-March about the extension of a U.S. $1.5 billion state loan to Belarus, Russia’s Deputy Finance Minister Sergey Storchak told reporters later on Wednesday. “We expect a Belarusian delegation to arrive in Moscow for consultations next week,” he said.
He added that the application of the Belarusian side “was spontaneous, and we need to understand whether the situation is hard, and whether the loan is critical to Belarus,” Storchak said.
Storchak said the Belarusian request was somewhat "unexpected" and Minsk will need to give sufficient grounds to the Russian government as the sum will be a serious burden for the budget. He said it was a matter of billions of dollars, and the loan might become a huge burden on the Russian budget. Besides, the budget law does not envisage relevant expenditures, and budget adjustments will be required. Storchak said Russia rarely provided loans to finance budget deficits, but Belarus has already received loans of the kind twice.
Belarus has developed a large-scale program of foreign borrowings to recover from the energy price shocks. The government is negotiating loans not only with Russia, but also with some foreign investors.
The Belarusian Economy Ministry has prepared a draft presidential decree to draw loans from China, BelaPAN reported on March 6, quoting Economy Minister Nikolay Zaychenko. Zaychenko added that a total of 37 projects worth $2.7 billion are expected to be financed using Chinese credit lines from 2007 through 2010.
Belarusian commercial banks also plan to take part in the state borrowing program by attracting up to $1.3 billion in foreign resources to finance domestic investment projects, in line with the government’s resolution on investment targets in 2007, which was considered by the Council of Ministers on Tuesday.