Business news

MINSK, 28 March (BelTA) – The Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development (EFSD) will transfer the loan to Belarus in seven tranches in 2016-2018, the press service of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) told BelTA.

According to the source, the money will be transferred in seven tranches in 2016-2018. The first tranche to the tune of $500 million will be granted within the next few days since Belarus has fulfilled all the key requirements as part of the tranche.

BelTA has been told that the other six tranches will be provided depending on Belarus’ fulfillment of other requirements. Two tranches are supposed to be transferred in 2016, another three in 2017, and another one in 2018.

According to representatives of the Eurasian Development Bank, which is the bank in charge of managing EFSD assets, the loan is intended to support the reform program of the Belarus government and the central bank. The program comprises two major blocks of economic policy measures: the creation of macroeconomic prerequisites for economic growth and the realization of market reforms meant to stabilize economic growth.

The Council of the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development authorized the allocation of a $2 billion loan to Belarus on 25 March.

BelTA reported earlier that in H1 2015 Belarus contacted the EurAsEC Anticrisis Fund (which is now known as the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development) with a request for a new loan as large as $3 billion. In the course of negotiations the initially specified sum of $3 billion dropped to $2 billion.

In 2015 Russia lent $110 million to Belarus for the sake of paying interest on the Russian loan that Belarus received in 2010. Apart from that, in July 2015 the Belarusian Finance Ministry received $760 million as a Russian state loan for servicing and paying the loans previously issued to Belarus by Russia and the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development.