OREANDA-NEWS. December 14, 2011. Eurasian Development Bank’s CEO Igor Finogenov has confirmed that Russian state-controlled Sberbank and the Eurasian Development Bank plan to lend U.S. USD 1 billion to the Belarusian government.

“The funds are to be provided (to finance) the development of (state-owned potash producer) Belaruskali,” Finogenov said without providing the interest rate and other details of the loan.

Earlier on Friday, a source close to the negotiations on the matter told reporters that Sberbank and the Eurasian Development Bank agreed on the loan.

The source specified that Sberbank is to provide a USD 900 million loan to Belarus with the remaining of USD 100 million allocated by the Eurasian Development Bank.

The interest rate of the loan was not provided.

The source said that Sberbank’s CEO German Gref and Finogenov were to arrive on Friday in the Belarusian capital of Minsk to hold talks on providing the loans.

In early October, Nadezhda Yermakova, the chairwoman of the National Bank of Belarus, said that the Belarusian government planned to take out a USD 1 billion loan from Sberbank.

Yermakova reiterated then that the Belarusian government had made a preliminary decision on borrowing the funds from Sberbank using a controlling stake in Belarusian oil refinery Naftan as collateral.