International reserve assets of Belarus since July 1, 2017. Will be calculated according to the methodology of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The National Bank of the Republic announced this on Wednesday, June 14. The decision was made two days after the next IMF mission left Minsk without the consent to help with money.
Minsk has adjusted for the IMF. Belarusians will now measure the size of their treasury by the IMF measure, that is, only those currencies that this international financial organization with headquarters in Washington consider to be reserve. The Russian ruble is not included in this list. Therefore, Minsk will no longer take into account ruble assets in the calculation of public funds.
Accordingly, from July 1 the state of the republic will noticeably decrease - at least, according to the reporting it will look like this. For example, on June 1, 2017. The volume of gold and foreign exchange reserves of the National Bank of Belarus was $ 5.239 billion according to the IMF standard and $ 5.604 billion according to the national standard, that is, taking into account the ruble and some other unwanted IMF currencies. Thus, the transition to the international calculus method leads to a loss of $ 365 million. On paper, of course. The National Bank of the country immediately stated that all "crossed out" assets will remain on the balance sheet of the agency and can be converted into another currency or used in state purchases.
It should be noted that the innovation of Minsk did not cause a stir in the markets. "The National Bank (Belarus) since 2004. Publishes the indicators of its reserves, calculated immediately by two methods: the Belarusian and the developed IMF. And those specialists who work with international structures have always used the indicator according to the second method. It's just that now it has become the only official one, "explained Valentin Chekan, an expert at the Interbank Information Center.
To understand why the Belarusians needed it, they do not need to go to a fortune-teller. A couple of days ago the republic was left by another IMF mission - once again without promises to allocate a loan. In fact Minsk has been trying for more than a year to agree with the Fund on receiving $ 3.5 billion at 2.28% per annum for 10 years. The IMF constantly puts forward conditions: it requires a transition to market prices for housing and communal services, suspension of wage growth, privatization of state enterprises. On this country does not want to go, and therefore tries to make various concessions to the IMF by various other concessions.
At the same time, everyone understands that Belarus can not abandon the Russian ruble - the economies of the two countries are very interconnected, and the transition to settlements with Moscow, for example, on the dollar, is not beneficial to Minsk. Moreover, Minsk is actively persuading Moscow to agree to pay for oil and gas by Russian rubles - and, apparently, it will happen in the near future. Still, the IMF loans - the history is uncertain, and trade with the neighbor goes on as it should, even now from that department of the treasury, which will be unaccounted for.