The IMF Executive Board took note of Belarus's interest in the new loan program, but still points the readiness of the Belarusian authorities for deep structural reforms as a condition for issuing the loan.
"Directors took note of Belarus’ interest in a possible new arrangement with the Fund. They agreed that such an arrangement would need to be conditional on a strong commitment of the authorities to a comprehensive and coherent package of policies and structural reforms," the IMF says Thursday in a statement released after the Executive Board of the IMF concluded the Third Post-Program Monitoring Discussion with Belarus.
The Belarusian ruler made a remark some days ago about the statement of the IMF, in which the Fund insists on structural economic reforms. "These structural reforms answer the interests of the IMF. They want us to sell these enterprises to whomever, perhaps to citizens of Belarus. But they will buy them [enterprises] out for a bottle of spirits or something like that,"Lukashenka said.
