BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
26/03/2010
Belarus adapts to oil price, gets $700 mln IMF loan
MINSK, March 26 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund has approved on Friday releasing a $700 million tranche for Belarus and said the country was adapting well to higher Russian oil prices.
The tranche brings the total financing provided to Belarus by the IMF to roughly $4 billion and discussions about a new loan programme could start as early as May.
"New discussions could start in May when the IMF mission visits the country," Natalia Kolyazina, the Fund's head in Belarus, told Reuters on Friday.
The tranche comes amid a fresh dispute between Belarus and Russia over customs duties on oil supplies [ID:nLDE62O0PF].
Kolyazina said Belarus was now able to adapt to high Russian fuel prices after cutting budget spending and supporting a flexible exchange rate.
"The measures taken by the government of Belarus have been positively taken by the (IMF's) board of directors".
Russia drastically cut supplies of duty-free oil to Belarus this year, saying the country would received only 6.3 million tonnes -- equal to its domestic consumption -- without paying exports duties.
The country has two refineries which are able to process over 20 million tonnes and Russia argues that Belarus sends most refined products to the West and therefore must pay full export duties on volumes exceeding its domestic consumption.
(Reporting by Andrei Makhovsky; writing by Dmitry Sergeyev, Editing by Ron Askew)
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