Credits received by Belarus placed at...foreign bank accounts

The scope of Belarus' forex reserves reached its historical maximum: nearly 8 billion dollars. However, it was refilled mostly due to the credits.

Is it beneficial when credits stay there as forex reserves and don't work for the economy? They say in the National Bank that the most important thing is to refill the forex reserves!

National Bank: "As a rule, all the money which we get from selling the state property, or from credits, is aimed to refill the forex reserves, this is the most important task at the moment".

Let us remind you, the forex reserves grew by 2,885 billion dollars, which is more than 57%, for the year 2011. In December this was facilitated by the credit provided by the EurAsEs Anti-Crisis Fund and the credits provided by Russia's savings bank and the Eurasian Bank of Development, stated in the National Bank's press-release.

Economist Leanid Zaika thinks that this money could have been used in a better way.

Zaika: "Frankly speaking, I don't understand why they place the money they got from selling of the "Beltransgas" into the forex reserves. 10 automobile plants could have been built for this money, and then sell automobiles to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan etc. Any kind of automobiles I mean".

Economist of the Center for system analysis and strategic studies of the Academy of Sciences Alyaksandr Hatouski says that the money which has not been earned should not be spent inside the country.

Hatouski: "We received foreign credits in 2009-2010. The Ministry of Finance took this money off the National Bank's accounts as Belarusian roubles and forwarded it to the state programs - to support agriculture, construction industry etc. This caused excess financial offer inside the economy, which realized in purchasing of additional import. Therefore, we had credit balance deficit. If we do not want to turn our credit balance upside down now we should not spend the money which we did not earn inside the country! This will lead to purchasing of imported goods in any case!"

According to Alyaksandr Hatouski, the National Bank refilled the liquid part of the forex reserves, which means that the money is not kept as golden ingots, but are placed at the foreign bank accounts. The currency crisis-2011 happened because of absence of liquid money in the forex reserves, among other things.

Hatouski: "The forex reserves were quite decent then, but there was only about one billion dollars at the foreign bank accounts. When a question with automobiles appeared, the pressure on the currency market increased - and this turned it upside down on the spot! The National Bank simply didn't have normal liquidity to cover all the fuss".

It is good that we have insured ourselves with the help of credits but we will have to give them back, with interest rates! The credit interest rates occupy the third line in the budget of Belarus already.