The National Bank of the Republic of Belarus is considering the possibility of liberalizing foreign exchange regulations, BelTA learned from Taras Nadolny, First Deputy Chairman of the Board of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB), during the 9th Russian National Banking Forum in Minsk on 25 September. The official said: “Work is now in progress to evaluate the possibility of liberalizing foreign exchange regulations for the sake of enabling conditions conducive to the inflow of foreign currency to the local market from the point of view of free business operation terms.” The possibility of reducing the percentage of mandatory foreign currency sales is under consideration among other things. Taras Nadolny noted that in accordance with the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty the mandatory sale of foreign currency by economic operators and the system of permissions on capital currency operations will be scrapped as from 1 January 2017. “This is why the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus is thinking about steps to prepare for such actions,” explained the official. The NBRB representative noted that although the Treaty allows Belarus to retain the right to keep mandatory sale of foreign currency in some cases, the country does not intend to use it a lot. “We would like the integration process to proceed without any exceptions. In the grand scheme of things, if we are talking about full-value integration, we have to enable free flow of currency and workforce. It is important to enable proper conditions inside the country to keep foreign currency, to allow Belarusian enterprises to freely borrow foreign currency, to support the liquidity of the domestic market, including the foreign currency market,” he concluded.
Written by belta.by
