Belarus seeks $400m loan from Iran, $7b bailout from IMF

PanARMENIAN.Net - Belarus is seeking a $400 million loan from Iran and hopes to agree a new $7 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund, central bank's management board Chairwoman Nadezhda Yermakova and Deputy Finance Minister Vladimir Amarin said on Monday, October 3.

"The question of raising loans worth some $400 million from Iran is under consideration. The Iranian party has already taken a decision in principle," Yermakova told the Belarusian parliament.

"An IMF mission to assess the economic situation in the country starts work tomorrow (on Tuesday). Maybe this will move on to considering a new program. Its volume stands at $7 billion," Amarin told journalists.

Minsk asked the IMF for help in June after it had to devalue its ruble in response to a large trade deficit, generous wage increases and loans granted by the government ahead last December's presidential election. But the IMF said the government had failed to present a sound economic program and promised to send a new mission to Minsk in October.

In September, Belarus said it may abandon plans to raise an $8 billion loan from the IMF and would put a $1 billion credit from Russian bank Sberbank to a local company into state reserves.

In June, Minsk also agreed to a $3 billion loan in several tranches over three years from the anti-crisis fund of the EurAsEC, a post-Soviet economic bloc led by Russia, RIA Novosti reported.