On 30 June and 1 July Belarus honored its obligation to repay a standby loan taken from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by transferring 109.5 million Special Drawing Rights (SDR) as the next installment to repay the principal sum, or the equivalent of $169 million, representatives of the Belarusian Finance Ministry told BelTA.
The previous time, on 20 June 2014, Belarus paid 54.7 million SDR or the equivalent of $84.3 million.
From January 2009 through April 2010 Belarus accomplished a standby program backed by a $3.5 billion IMF loan. It allowed the country to secure positive dynamics of several economy and monetary management indicators.
In 1992-2008 Belarus tapped into IMF resources twice: $217.2 million from the Systemic Transformation Facility and $77.4 million via the standby lending mechanism. In February 2005 Belarus fully paid out those loans.
IMF operation in Belarus is aimed at working together with the government and the National Bank in preparing economic policy documents, focusing on taxation, budgeting, monetary management, exchange rate, and trade policy for the sake of achieving considerable economic growth, low inflation and a stable balance of payments.