Belarus asks Russia for loan to repay $600 million debt
Minsk has asked Moscow for a loan to refinance the debt of $600 million, said Maxim Yermolovich, Minister of Finance of Belarus, BelTA reported.
“We have been discussing the possibility of refinancing the entire amount of the payments on Russian government loans in 2019. The amount of these payments is $600 million,” he said.
According to the minister, the implementation of these plans depends on the decision of the Russian government to approve the loan. Yermolovich added that the funds for the loan were allocated by the Russian budget for 2029.
In October 2018, the head of the Ministry of Finance and First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Anton Siluanov said that Moscow would consider the possibility of providing a loan to refinance the debt of Belarus in 2019. He said that Belarus’ debt was about $ 630 million. Siluanov said that Minsk has requested a loan of $ 1billion. The amount covers all debts to Russia and the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development.
In 2017, Russia allocated a ten-year loan of $700 million to Belarus. According to the decree of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the funds are allocated “to continue strengthening friendly relations” and to pay off the loans issued earlier.
In the middle of May 2018, the amount of Minsk interest on loans issued by Moscow amounted to $ 6.3 billion and about 60 billion rubles, the TASS news agency reported. Currently, Belarus has no overdue obligations to Russia.