OREANDA-NEWS. March 29, 2011. Belarus hopes to attract loans from Russia and from the EurAsEC bailout fund in the first half of the year, amounting to USD 1 billion and USD 2 billion, respectively, NBB Governor Petr Prokopovich said when presenting a regular report to President Alexander Lukashenko.

“We have a good chance of reaching agreements on these loans in April or May,” he said, adding that the loans might be received before July 1.

Prokopovich noted that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin assured his Belarusian colleagues that the loans would be provided. However, the Russian side demanded certain moves, in particular, Russia requested the government’s action plan for the near future.

“Belarus has set up a special commission including representatives of the government and the NBB, led by Petr Prokopovich. The commission is expected to meet with Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin and other Belarusian officials this week, and there are plans to complete the draft of the program by the end of March,” the press service of the president said in a statement.

“We will work out this program in the near future. It will be drafted in a way to meet the parameters of the country’s socioeconomic program, including in the part stipulating this year’s foreign trade deficit at or below 9% of GDP and FDI inflows of at least USD 6.5 billion,” Prokopovich said, quoted by the press service of the president.