[vc_row][vc_column][vc_raw_html]JTNDaWZyYW1lJTIwd2lkdGglM0QlMjI1NjAlMjIlMjBoZWlnaHQlM0QlMjIzMTUlMjIlMjBzcmMlM0QlMjJodHRwcyUzQSUyRiUyRnd3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbSUyRmVtYmVkJTJGU0Y3M2ZyRDBwX0UlMjIlMjBmcmFtZWJvcmRlciUzRCUyMjAlMjIlMjBhbGxvd2Z1bGxzY3JlZW4lM0UlM0MlMkZpZnJhbWUlM0U=[/vc_raw_html][vc_column_text]He is not allergic to reform, said Lukashenka to the head of the IMF mission. But it’s normal, since the IMF decided on a stabilization loan for Belarus. And the loan made it possible for Lukashenka to stay.
He promised it so vaguely to be able to not perform it later — this is how experts evaluate comments made by Alyaksandr Lukashenka at the meeting with Peter Dohlman — Head of the IMF mission, working in Belarus from the 9th until the 19th of October.
The current mission was supposed to be a decisive one. Its goal was to make an expert decision whether to start working on a new stabilization program for Belarus. But it depends on their assessment of how ready the official Minsk is to reforms. Lukashenka’s response to this question was vague.
“Not a single point suggested by you makes me feel allergic. If you receive services — you have to pay for each service in full. Whether it is electricity, heat, transportation etc. If you unable to manage an enterprise — give it into some other hands,” said the head of Belarus Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
Experts summarize: Alyaksandr Lukashenka is trying to pass the forced price increase for utilities that he can no longer subsidize through the budget for the requirement of the IMF. At the same time he is trying to avoid real reforms that would simultaneously increase the well-being of citizens, but would weaken his political power.
“In fact, the Belarusian authorities are not yet ready for real reforms. They still have hope that they will be able to replace reforms with some pseudo reforms,” explains economist Leu Marholin.
For example, a program under which the Fund allocated a $300 million loan to Belarus already in 1995 was canceled by Lukashenka. Eventually, half the money did not reach the country. In 2009, when the IMF lent our country 3.5 billion, the program was no longer implemented after the last tranche of the loan.
“The IMF has long understood these tricks, and this summer they said that they were interested not so much in the set of measures as the goals: what you want to achieve,” says economist Siarhei Chaly.
Meanwhile, he explains, the answer to this question today cannot be given even by the government officials who have in the last months given opposite statements about the expected reforms, therefore, according to this expert, the hope for the IMF loan is small.
Experts remind us that next year our country has to pay foreign creditors almost three and a half billion dollars. There is no money for that, and there is no place to borrow it from, apart from the International Monetary Fund and the Eurasian stabilization fund, which, however, both require reforms.
Stanislau Ivashkevich[vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row]
