OREANDA-NEWS. March 16, 2009. Belarus plans to switch to reserve regional currencies in trade with all the main trade partners. In future the step will allow dropping the country’s dependence on one currency, the US dollar in particular. The plans were discussed at a meeting of President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and Chairman of the Board of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB) Piotr Prokopovich on March 16.

The NBRB believes that domination of one reserve currency, the US dollar, was one of the causes of the global economy crisis. “We’ve made a conclusion that we should encourage the development of bilateral and multilateral relations through payments in national currencies as much as possible, through stimulating the use of reserve regional currencies of other countries in order to minimise losses from the hegemony of one currency,” said the NBRB Chairman.

The first successful steps have already been made in this direction. Belarus has signed a business deal agreement with China, which enables access to around USD 3 billion of Chinese resources on extremely profitable terms. It is the basis for stepping up the trade and economic relations between the two countries and will allow boosting the bilateral trade by at least 400% in the near future. “It is the stimulus that provides financial support for the development of our economy for the next 10-15 years,” remarked Piotr Prokopovich.

In his words, negotiations with the Russian Federation about using the Russian ruble in mutual trade as the reserve currency are close to completion. Similar negotiations with Ukraine are in progress.

The measures are one of the ways to minimise the aftermath of the global financial and economic crisis.

The head of state was informed about the performance of the country’s banking industry in 2009.

Despite the complicated external conditions the banking industry managed to preserve stability and ensure the achievement of all goals outlined by the 2009 Major Monetary Management Guidelines.

Since early 2009 the exchange rate of the Belarusian ruble against the basket of currencies has hardly changed and stands at Br959.9 (Br960 as of January 2). The NBRB will keep fluctuations of the Belarusian ruble exchange rate against the basket of currencies within 5% band, assured Piotr Prokopovich.

The banking system provides lending support to the real economy in full. The borrowing increased by almost 70% in comparison with the same period of 2008. The borrowing volume used for housing construction has increased, with the amount of preferential loans up by 60%, the volume of loans issued on general terms up by over 70%. Piotr Prokopovich assured that the NBRB will take the necessary measures to satisfy the demand of the real economy sector for borrowed money. He also added that additional steps would be taken in order to raise the housing construction lending above last year’s figures in Q2 2009 and 2009 as a whole.

The President was informed about the measures the NBRB took to increase the gold and hard currency reserves. Since early this year the NBRB has managed to increase the reserves by almost USD 500 million.

The country’s payment system operates effectively, with the amount of payments in January-February 2009 up by over 70% in comparison with the same period of last year.

The steady lending of the economy, the steady national currency and the stable operation of the payment system make one believe that Belarus will step out of the global financial and economic crisis with minimum losses and within the shortest time possible.