[vc_row][vc_column][vc_raw_html]JTNDaWZyYW1lJTIwd2lkdGglM0QlMjI1NjAlMjIlMjBoZWlnaHQlM0QlMjIzMTUlMjIlMjBzcmMlM0QlMjJodHRwcyUzQSUyRiUyRnd3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbSUyRmVtYmVkJTJGMmhFQ01JTWZXcEUlMjIlMjBmcmFtZWJvcmRlciUzRCUyMjAlMjIlMjBhbGxvd2Z1bGxzY3JlZW4lM0UlM0MlMkZpZnJhbWUlM0U=[/vc_raw_html][/vc_column][/vc_row]The IMF has not yet given a loan to Belarus. This follows from the statement issued by the head of the negotiating mission, which worked in Minsk from 9th to 19th November.
In a statement, the head of the IMF Mission Peter Dohlman said that the IMF experts managed to achieve significant progress on some issues in negotiations with the official Minsk. Further negotiations will continue remotely.
“The negotiating parties have different goals. The Fund wants to increase the solvency of Minsk through reforms, and the Belarusian authorities want to receive money, and to delay reforms,” said the economic commentator Uladzimir Artsyuhin.
As part of the reforms, the IMF recommends to reduce the budget expenditures for subsidies to enterprises and households. In particular, it urges Belarus to cut directive lending and eventually make the transport and housing and communal services self-supporting. The authorities have planned these steps which are difficult for the public themselves – due to lack of money.
“If you get a service — you pay in full, be electricity, heat, transportation, and so forth,” recently said the head of Belarus Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
At the same time, the official Minsk is trying to delay as best it can the reforms aimed at increasing the welfare of the population – mass privatization, a departure from the executive branch interfering in the activities of economic entities, as well as an increase in unemployment benefits.
“Change in the economic system threatens Lukashenka with the loss or limitation of power,” continues Uladimr Artsyuhin.
Alyaksandr Lukashenka explains this by the alleged non-readiness of the population to reforms.
The need for reform is now recognized even by the authorities — because the current model does not allow to either increase the welfare of the population, or even to hold it at the current level.
There only one quesstion now – how fast the reforms should be carried out. Based on the experience of other post-Soviet countries, The IMF says that delaying reforms only increases their negative consequences for the population.
Stanislau Ivashkevich
