Belarus Delays Additional Steps on Ruble, Seeks Russia Loan
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Belarus’s central bank will refrain from additional changes to its currency management policy for 20 to 30 days as the country negotiates a bailout loan with Russia, the state-run Belta news service reported, citing an unidentified central banker.
The former Soviet republic announced on March 29 that it would allow local lenders to sell foreign currency to companies at an exchange rate that deviates as much as 10 percent from the official rate. Without a loan from Russia, that devaluation will not be enough to curtail its current-account crisis, Bank of America Merrill Lynch wrote in a report yesterday.