OREANDA-NEWS. January 12, 2012. The Belarusian government does not plan to take out any state loans in future, except from the International Monetary Fund, President Alexander Lukashenko said Friday.

“We do not plan to make more borrowings. We are ready to hold negotiations with the International Monetary Fund,” Lukashenko said. He added that the IMF set the interests rates of its loans at around 1.5%–2.0% and Belarus could attract USD 2.5 billion–USD 3 billion from the IMF.

Lukashenko also said that Belarus does not plan to borrow funds which are more expensive than 10%, including those provided by Russia’s largest bank state-controlled Sberbank.

But he said that Belarusian companies could borrow abroad, with emphasis on cooperation with China, to finance commercial projects.