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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Ukraine, Belarus get Russian loans

Russia will grant Belarus another loan of up to $2 billion this year with a repayment period of 10 years so that it can update its production facilities and bolster its national currency.

"The fall of potassium market prices has wrecked the Belarusian economy and deprived Belarus of foreign currency, which it needs badly," Vladimir Osakovsky, a Russia and CIS economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said, Voice of Russia reports.

Russia will also grant a $15 billon loan to Ukraine so that Kiev can pay off all the National Bank and Finance Ministry Finance Ministry debts and stabilize the national economy in the next two years.

"The money will be mostly spent on social programs, to take the pressure off the public sector. This will also reduce the market pressure on the Ukrainian economy," Yaroslav Lissovoli, the chief economist at Deutsche Bank Russia, said, according to Voice of Russia.

Ukraine sought for financial aid throughout 2013, but it could not shoulder a debt burden in the financial markets nor the tough conditions that would have been imposed by the IMF.

Russia, however, did not demand any conditions in exchange for purchasing Ukraine bonds.

Russia's financial aid has led international analysts to upgrade their forecast for Ukraine's credit rating from negative to stable, Voice of Russia reports.