MinFin believes it is too soon to comment on changing the timing for 2nd loan tranche to Belarus
MOSCOW. Aug 26 (Interfax) - Russia's Ministry of Finance believes it is too soon to comment on possibility changing the timing of the second tranche of the EurAsEC Anticrisis Fund's loan for Belarus, the head of the ministry's press service, Andrei Matveyev, told Interfax.
"The date of the board's meeting [of the EurAsEC Anticrisis Fund] on this issue still hasn't been set but it should take place no earlier than October," he said.
The board will decide on the provision of the tranche based on the Belarusian authorities' progress in implementing measures for stabilizing the economy as specified in the loan's terms.
Matveyev said that it is too soon to discuss if the conditions for the loan have been met or not prior to the board's meeting.
At the same time, the Finance Ministry is continuously monitoring the implement of reforms in Belarus, he said.
The managing director for the Eurasian Development Bank's corporate financing department, Dmitry Krasilnikov, said on Thursday that the timing of the second tranche's allocation, $400 million, might be changed.
He said that the uncertainty on the timing of the second tranche has been caused by Belarus' lack of progress in its structural reform obligations as specified by the Anticrisis Fund.
For instance, Krasilnikov said that Belarus has yet to "unify its exchange rate, stabilize the situation with reserves or restore the populations' confidence in the national currency, these are very difficult issues".
The EurAsEC Anticrisis Fund decided on June 4 to allocate a $3 billion loan to Belarus in three tranches. A total of $1.2 billion is planned for this year, $800 million of which was received at the end of June. The second tranche is initially slated for this autumn.