U.S. dollar will become cheaper in Belarus by 2010 year-end, Prokopovich says

MINSK, 23 November (BelTA) – The U.S. dollar will become cheaper in Belarus by the end of the year, chairman of the board of the National Bank of Belarus Piotr Prokopovich told reporters. “According to our forecasts, the Belarusian ruble will not devalue again against the U.S. dollar. The Belarusian ruble will be getting stronger,” Piotr Prokopovich said. Recently the U.S. dollar has fluctuated strongly. “The dollar has become a volatile and unpredictable currency,” he said. In addition, the U.S. currency is strongly overvalued against the Belarusian ruble. “Therefore the exchange rate will decrease in late 2010 and become close to Br3,000 per $1,” Piotr Prokopovich said. He also informed that in 2011 the national currency will remain stable against the U.S. dollar and the basket of foreign currencies. According to the National Bank forecasts, the Belarusian ruble will fluctuate against the basket of foreign currencies within the band of plus/minus 5.3% in 2011. A reminder, according to the monetary policy guidelines of Belarus for 2011, the exchange rate of the Belarusian ruble against the basket of foreign currencies will fluctuate within plus/minus 8% of the basket’s value as of early 2011. This year the target was within plus/minus 10%. This year the fluctuations of the Belarusian ruble against the basket of foreign currencies were within the range of plus 1% to minus 4%. As of 1 November 2010 the value of the basket of foreign currencies made up Br1074.2. “The exchange rate that has prevailed during the current year will be maintained until the end of the year, which means that there will be no significant fluctuations,” Piotr Prokopovich said and added that the Belarusian ruble will fluctuate within plus/minus 3% or 4% against the basket of foreign currencies by the end of the year. The head of the National Bank noted that in 2011 the situation of 2 January 2009 will not happen again. “January 2 is already history. We weathered it. There will be no such incidents again,” said Piotr Prokopovich and added that the one-time devaluation was required by the IMF. “Today the situation is completely different. There is no need to take such steps. We have no obligations before the IMF, there is no need to ask the IMF for support, we have sufficient resources of our own,” the chairman of the board of the National Bank said. He added that on the whole the agreement with the IMF was beneficial for Belarus. Besides, the current situation in the world is completely different too. “We can borrow in foreign markets,” Piotr Prokopovich said. According to the head of the National Bank, stability of the national currency is also guaranteed by the growth of the international reserves of the country. As of 1 November 2010, the international reserve assets grew by almost $400 million to reach $6365 million.

БЕЛТА