The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has transferred the third loan tranche in the amount of $699.5 million to Belarus, Anatol Drazdow, spokesman for the National Bank, said on Monday.
The funds will be added to the international reserves and will be used, when necessary, to support the national currency, Mr. Drazdow said.
The IMF approved the loan tranche for Belarus on October 21.
"Belarus has achieved much progress in carrying out reforms aimed at improving its business environment and developing the private sector", Takatoshi Kato, deputy managing director of the IMF, said in a statement adopted last week following the second review of the country’s performance under an economic program supported by a stand-by arrangement with the IMF.
Mr. Drazdow said that the new tranche would assist "further steps to ensure the stable functioning of the country’s economy in the context of the global financial and economic crisis, and the revival of the sustainable economic growth."
In late 2008, the IMF agreed to lend Belarus $2.46 billion. Belarus requested the loan in October 2008, saying that it was needed for replenishing the country’s gold and foreign exchange reserves amid the global financial crisis. The international organization made available some $787.9 million in January and said that "the remainder will be phased thereafter, subject to quarterly reviews."
The IMF Executive Board on June 29 increased the amount of the loan for Belarus to about $3.52 billion, and approved the disbursement of the second tranche, $679.2 million, to the country.
The IMF has provided a total of $2.23 billion to Belarus under the stand-by arrangement.
