OREANDA-NEWS. On 09 July 2009 was announced, that the Belarusian ruble depreciated against the basket of currencies of Belarus’ main trade partners 13.44% in real terms in January-May 2009, according to the National Bank of Belarus (NBB).

The Belarusian ruble depreciated against the Russian ruble 9.82% in the period, against the Ukrainian hryvna 23.56%, against the euro 17.52%, and against the U.S. dollar 17.31%.

Against the Latvian lat the Belarusian ruble lost 19.19% of its value, against the Lithuanian litas 19.32%, against the British pound sterling 19.08%, and against the Kazakh tenge the Belarusian ruble appreciated 1.39%.

IMF experts had insisted on a depreciation of the Belarusian ruble during the talks with the Belarusian government over a stand-by facility.

On January 2, 2009 the central bank devaluated the national currency 20.5% against the U.S. dollar, 20.3% against the euro and 17.3% against the Russian ruble.

Starting May 1, 2004 all countries, whose share in Belarus’ trade turnover is above 1%, are considered Belarus’ trade partners. Earlier, only currencies of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and Poland were included in the basket of currencies.