OREANDA-NEWS. On 8 September 2009 was announced, that an International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission, led by Mr. Chris Jarvis, visited Minsk during August 18-September 2, 2009 for discussions on the second review under the Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) with Belarus. At the conclusion of the visit, Mr. Jarvis issued the following statement:

“The IMF mission today reached staff-level agreement with the Belarusian authorities on the conclusion of the second review under the SBA. The authorities’ Letter of Intent will now be submitted to IMF Management with a view to allowing the IMF Executive Board to consider the completion of the second review of the arrangement soon after the Annual IMF-World Bank Meetings in October. The completion of this review would release a tranche of SDR 437.93 million (about USD 683 million).

“Macroeconomic and financial policies in Belarus are on track. All end-June quantitative performance criteria have been met and the authorities have been making good progress in meeting structural targets under the program, including the preparation of the draft decree on establishing of the Privatization Agency.

“The IMF supports this program. Current exchange rate and fiscal policies appear to be consistent with the objectives of the program. The mission and the authorities agreed on a tightening of credit policy, which will contain domestic demand and improve Belarus’s external position.”

The 15-month, SDR 1.62 billion (about USD 2.46 billion) arrangement was approved by the IMF Executive Board on January 12, 2009 (see Press Release No. 09/05). The IMF financial support was increased to SDR2.27 billion (about USD 3.52 billion) on June 29, 2009 (see Press release No. 09/241).