OREANDA-NEWS. Although Moscow agreed to provide a USD 2 billion credit to support the Belarusian economy, the National Bank of Belarus (NBB) will not relax its monetary management policy in 2014. On the contrary, the monetary policy will grow tougher, as the credit money will go to replenish the country's gold and FX reserves.

The NBB issued a statement to this effect following its board meeting on January 3, 2014.

The NBB plans to optimize bank credits in Q1 in a bid to restrict the growth of the economy's debt to banks by 0.7% per month on average. An approach like this will provide for economic development without causing a macroeconomic misbalance.

The NBB has announced a plan to tighten the screws on bank refinancing in order to encourage banks to live within their means when it comes to holding active operations.

The refinancing rate will remain unchanged in January 2014 at 23.5% per annum, and may change later during the year depending on the situation on the financial market and the level of inflation growth.

The NBB says the country's monetary management policy will seek to support price stability as a basis for economic growth and balanced economic development. The priority of the interest rate policy of Belarusian banks in 2014 will be to be to fully compensate for inflation growth and stimulate ruble deposits.

The central bank's refinancing rate is seen as the key instrument for regulating the level of interest rates on the money market and the basis for setting interest rates on liquidity support for banks.