OREANDA-NEWS. July 04, 2012. Belarus’ Finance Ministry raises its voice against plans to take out new external loans, Finance Minister Andrei Kharkovets told reporters.

“New external loans, when they are drawn in vast amounts, may aggravate the country’s external debt, which will be hard to service. We do not need to let the country slip that far,” the minister said.

“Belarus has been doing well in foreign trade. If the foreign trade surplus is sustained till the end of 2012, our demand for new loans will decrease substantially,” the minister said.

Furthermore, it is not quite comfortable to borrow on external markets at the moment, the minster said.

Belarus now considers borrowing from the point of view of refinancing former loans in the future, Kharkovets said.