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Minsk ready to pay debts to West in Belarusian rubles, says president

Earlier, the World Bank said it would place all loans provided by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development to or guaranteed by Belarus into delinquency status due to missed payments starting October 17

MINSK, October 31. /TASS/. Belarus is ready to meet its obligations to international financial organizations, but only in its national currency considering the sanctions that have been imposed against the country, President Alexander Lukashenko said at a meeting with Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko on Monday.

"My request is simple, and it should be fulfilled: we are reliable payers, we are ready to repay our debts, seeing as our debt to the West is not high. But they have refused to accept foreign currency from Belarus. Fine, then we offered the Belarusian ruble to them, which they rejected as well. Consequently, it is our duty to repay our debts, but we will do it in Belarusian rubles by transferring those payments to separate accounts," the BelTA agency quoted him as saying.

As sanctions do not allow making payments in euros or dollars, a presidential decree was adopted this March in Belarus ‘On additional measures to ensure stable functioning of the economy’. In accordance with the document the government and the country’s National Bank passed a decree in April ‘On temporary measures to settle external state obligations’, which stipulates the repayment of debt obligations through the transfer of payments using foreign currency to a separate current account in Belarusian rubles opened in Belarusbank.

Earlier, the World Bank said it would place all loans provided by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development to or guaranteed by Belarus into delinquency status due to missed payments starting October 17.

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