The deputy prime minister of Belarus, Aleksandr Turchin, has said that there is no need for Belarus to borrow money from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Belarusian state news agency BelTA has reported.
“The matter is not on the agenda for now,” Mr Turchin told reporters.
Speaking at the Kastrycnicki Economic Forum, the deputy PM said that the country’s roadmap, that was being prepared together with the World Bank, was nearly ready. When asked if the roadmap would be easier to implement with external funding, he said that it required “no major investments.”
Meantime, Belarusian finance news portal TUT.BY reported that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) expected more efforts from Belarus to make progress in privatising state-owned enterprises.
“It’s clear that the EBRD is dissatisfied with how privatisation projects are implemented in Belarus,” a source told TUT.BY, adding that if the reforms are not implemented, the EBRD’s board “will certainly be ready to make some unpopular decisions.”
Aside from the EBRD, the World Bank has also repeatedly advised Belarus to restructure its public sector to reduce the number of ineffective state enterprises.
“To be clear, we are not talking about new state support. Maybe some debts will be restructured. But the allocation of new funds is out of the question,” said the Belarusian deputy PM, noting that there are no major joint stock companies that need to be shut down.