All news

Belarus negotiates in principle 1 bln dlr loan from Sberbank.

The there is an agreement in principle on the loan - Belarus’s ambassador to Russia Alexander Surikov said

MINSK, September 28 (Itar-Tass) —— Belarus has achieved an agreement in principle on a one-billion-dollar loan from Russia’s Savings Bank.

"The there is an agreement in principle on the loan. Negotiations about its conditions are in progress. The size of the loan is one billion dollars," Belarus’s ambassador to Russia Alexander Surikov said. He confirmed that currently no conditions for using shares of the OJSC Belaruskali as a collateral were being considered.

The ambassador also said that no independent evaluation of Belaruskali was available at the moment.

Earlier, President Alexander Lukashenko said that Sberbank had confirmed that the value of Belaruskali was 30 billion dollars. As Surikov explained, Sberbank had roughly estimated the value of assets that might be used as a loan collateral.

"The evaluation of Belaruskali assets at 30 billion allowed us to make a decision on the loan," said the ambassador. He explained that according to international standards for every borrowed ruble there must be a collateral three rubles worth.