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August 8 – August 14, 2011

The government starts dealing with arrears

The situation has not changed
The government starts dealing with arrears

“Belneftehim” restricted supply of its subordinate enterprises to foreign enterprises-debtors. This decision was adopted at a meeting of the Board of the Group on 29 July 2011.

Reports say, Belarusian exporters’ receivables exceeded $ 4 billion, of which $ 2 billion accounted for arrears.

Comment

The main volume of foreign currency earnings, which stays unreasonably outside Belarus, is accountable for the Ministry of Industry enterprises and the concern “Belneftekhim”. All together they are responsible for about 70% of the Belarusian exports. The reasons behind the delayed return of foreign currency earnings are not only due to unattractive official exchange rate, but also to the possibility to make quick gains using financial institutions abroad. While struggling to increase the foreign currency earnings the authorities still adhere to the usual administrative methods. The intrigue is that unofficial repost say, the State Control Committee, the main oversight body of the country, informally does not support the current economic policy. SCC experts were both against the unwinding of extensive loans and income growth at the end of 2010, as well as against the current policy of multiple exchange rates. Without full and unconditional support of the SCC, any repressive attempts would be ineffective.

Accordingly, prognosis for the future is that the number of corruption schemes will increase, there will be little progress on the return of currency earnings (by large state-owned enterprises), and continuation of fights behind the scenes between different power groups for a way out of the crisis in the country.

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