The Russian Government has approved an agreement to provide Belarus a state loan in Russian Roubles (worth an equivalent $760m), with a corresponding instruction released on the official Internet portal of legal information
The funds will be used to pay and service loans given previously to Belarus by Russia and the Eurasian Fund for Stabilisation and Development (EFSD). The loan will be repaid by 13 equal twice-yearly instalments on February 15th and August 15th every year, with the first payment due on February 15th, 2019.
This year, Russia has already granted Belarus $110 million to repay the interest on the Russian loan, issued in 2010. Recently, Russian Finance Minister, Anton Siluanov, told reporters in Moscow that Belarus had asked Russia for a $3bn loan.
The BELTA correspondent was confirmed at the Belarusian Finance Ministry that Belarus had applied for a new loan for the amount of $3bn to the EurAsEC Anticrisis Fund [now renamed the Eurasian Fund for Stabilisation and Development] in the first half of 2015. In early July, the Eurasian Development Bank reported that its Fund for Stabilisation and Development was preparing details of Belarus’ loan application to the EFSD.
By Alexander Pimenov
