Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has assured that the national currency will not be devalued. If needed, the necessary resources will be allocated from the gold and currency reserves to maintain the exchange rate of the national currency, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said during a meeting with the heads of the largest Belarusian mass media outlets, BelTA has learnt.We have enough reserves. Soon we will get around $1.5 billion in loans from the Russian Federation to beef up our gold and foreign currency reserves. In case of urgency, we will support the economy provided we have excess reserves. There should be no fears. People will get their salaries, he said.Alexander Lukashenko noted that "everyone has been predicting the devaluation of the national currency, except for the President. “Both people and enterprises have been predicting it. I said that we will not do the artificial devaluation of the national currency to give a breath of air (though it could be a good thing) to BelAZ, MAZ, and other major companies. The devaluation of the national currency always results in price growth. We have been there. Therefore, we will not do it: 25%, 30%, or 15% devaluation will not happen. If we have an opportunity, we will maintain the stability of the national currency, but not excessively. Nobody will reproach us for this. All countries do this,” the President said.“If there is a frenzied demand for U.S. dollars and people queue in exchange offices, we will not maintain the exchange rate of the national currency at any costs. We need to set the exchange rate floating,” said the head of state. According to him, that was what was done in Belarus. "Last year the national currency devalued by more than 10% against the U.S. dollars, and by over 9% against the basket of currencies – U.S. dollar, euro and Russian ruble. With the economy we had last year, with the foreign trade deficit, we chose not to maintain the exchange rate of the national currency at any cost. We let it devalue but devalue gradually,” the head of state said.With the parliamentary and presidential elections in sight (you know the reason) those who wanted to speculate on it were backed up by major financiers to start a campaign in the so-called opposition media. They encouraged people's interest in the topic. I said the devaluation would not happen! I wanted to show that these are useless financiers and economists who pushed this devaluation topic, the President noted. The President said he had addressed independent specialists with a request to calculate the consequences of a one-time devaluation of the national currency. “They were unanimous in the futility of the step. It fortified my understanding of the situation. I have done everything possible to avoid devaluation,” the President stressed. “Yes, I sought and asked for loans. I borrowed this money, named the lenders. I do not think I did anything wrong. I did not violate any objective economic laws. As the head of state I did everything to maintain the stability of the national currency, at least at this stage. I will act like this in the future, keeping the exchange rate issue on my radar. I showed that all the arguments provided by our financial experts who sit idle are good for nothing,” the head of state said.
Written by belta.by
