MINSK, December 26 (RIA Novosti) – Belarus will get the fourth tranche of a bailout loan from the EurAsEC Anticrisis Fund in the nearest future, but the exact date will be set later, Nadezhda Yermakova, the head of the Belarusian National Bank, said on Wednesday.
Earlier in the month, EurAsEC, a regional economic grouping of ex-Soviet republics led by Russia, approved the disbursement of a fourth, $440-million loan tranche for Belarus.
“We are receiving the next tranche in the nearest future and the date is not a principle issue for us,” Yermakova said.
She also said the decisions on the fifth and sixth tranches will be made by the Anticrisis Fund of the EurAsEC after it evaluates how Belarus implements its credit obligations.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said earlier in the month that the fifth tranche would be tied to the implementation of a state privatization program in the post-Soviet republic.
EurAsEC’s program for Belarus is designed to rectify the country’s serious economic imbalances, low gold and foreign exchange reserves and high inflation.
The $3 billion loan agreement between Belarus and the Eurasian Bank for Development, which manages the EurAsEC Anticrisis Fund resources, was signed in June 2011. Under the agreement, the loan is disbursed in six tranches.