Belarus’ national debt to grow - IMF

Belarus’ national debt will be increasing in the next few years, experts of the International Monetary Fund estimate. “The national debt including the guarantee is expected to be dramatically increasing and to stabilize at the level of 60% of the GDP in the medium term,” the members of the IMF mission announced after finishing their work in Belarus in 2018.

The national debt is 52% of the GDP, the IMF reports. According to the fund methods, the national debt includes the national guarantee.

The Belarusian government is planning to pay off the national debt by means of untied loans in 2019-2020 and has set the goal ‘to monitor the national debt in order to decrease it’. The marker of reaching the goal is ‘the national debt not exceeding 45% of the GDP’.

"The national debt will keep increasing because most of it is in foreign currencies. It makes the debt sensible to the exchange rate,” head of the IMF mission Jacques Miniane explained the position of the experts. “The correction of the [republican] budget by 2% of the GDP within 2 or 3 years is required to stop the growth of the the national debt and to make it go down to 50% of the GDP in the medium term.”

The reduction of budget transfers allocated to weak state enterprises should be a priority, the IMF thinks. It would help improve the discipline and strengthen the so-called budget restrictions, Jacques Miniane believes.

"The sum of such transfers has decreased this year,” the head of the IMF mission added. “It would be great if the trend became steady and long-term.”