No currency devaluation in Belarus in Jan 1 - Lukashenko
MINSK. Dec 21 (Interfax) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said there would be no currency devaluation in Belarus on January 1.
"We have no objective need to devalue the national currency, the more so because we are not constraining the exchange rate artificially," he said at a meeting with students and teaching staff at the State Informatics and Radio-Electronics University.
He said rumors of devaluation were "aggravating the situation" and "you know who's doing it."
Lukashenko said he'd heard a report by Nadezhda Yermakova, head of the National Bank of Belarus, yesterday, who said there was a "good situation" in the currency market. She said firms were selling more currency than they were buying.
Lukashenko said there was a certain increase in demand among the public, who are buying a little more than they are selling.
"It's the end of the world today, so why worry?" he said, with a touch of irony. "There's a sea of rumors. They [the public] contradict themselves. First it's the end of the world, then they are buying dollars up. But why would you need dollars in the afterlife?" he said.
Lukashenko said he saw no reason for the ruble to devalue. "But even if we had to spend $1 billion propping the exchange rate up I'd do so." "Because we have more than $8 billion in gold and forex reserves. We've never had so much," he said.
