OREANDA-NEWS. April 26, 2011. The National Bank of Belarus (NBB) has lifted limitations on the formation of the exchange rate of the Belarusian rubles in trade between commercial banks and companies, Deputy NBB Governor Nikolai Luzgin told a news briefing.

According to Luzgin, “the NBB and the government lift the limitations on the formation of the exchange rate of the Belarusian ruble for currency acquisition and sale transactions between banks and economic entities.”

“As soon as we reach the equilibrium exchange rate of the Belarusian ruble in trade between commercial banks and companies, further measures will be taken to stabilize the situation on the internal market with eventual introduction of the uniform exchange rate in all market segments,” Luzgin said.

He explained that the NBB repealed the previous 10% band around the official rate for trade between banks and companies on the interbank market. The decision will help overcome the uncertainty of market traders regarding the situation on the domestic market and change to the unified exchange rate in various segments of the money market.

Luzgin added that the decision might be “interim”. “We also consider introducing an additional trading session at the exchange, like we used to have in the late 1990s. We will thus set an exchange rate based on the balance of demand and supply while preserving the original session to sell currency for critical imports.”