Belarus will continue honoring its state debt commitments in full, BelTA learned from Belarusian Finance Minister Maksim Yermolovich on 25 March.

The official said: “We continue honoring our commitments in full. We are not amending the policy of the Finance Ministry and Belarus as a whole with regard to the commitments the country has undertaken and continue acting in strict compliance with these commitments.”

In January-February 2020 as much as $366 million was spent on repaying the state debt and $157 million was spent on servicing it. Belarus will have to spend about $3.1 billion on repaying and servicing the state debt by the end of the year. “We see no problems with honoring these commitments. We are fully confident we have the resources to repay the money,” the finance minister stressed.

Maksim Yermolovich pointed out that the Finance Ministry had done considerable work to improve the state debt management system, had diversified the portfolio of its borrowings and opportunities for raising resources from various sources. “The domestic market where government securities are traded is rather well-developed. It allows us to keep the state debt highly manageable in any circumstances, including the most complicated situations,” Maksim Yermolovich noted.