Zlotniaku: Credit to help Belarus get used to new prices

Russia has decided to allocate another 2-billion dollar stabilizing credit to Belarus. The Russian Minister of Finance Alyaksei Kudrin has informed about it. The money will arrive in two tranches of 1 billion dollars each. The first tranch is expected this year and the second one – in 2009, informs “PRIME-TASS".
An economist Leanid Zlotnikau thinks that the credit will be used to pay for gas. In his opinion, Belarus will lose about 2 billions due to the increase in gas prices next year.

“Let’s look back at the history. We received a 1.5-billion dollar credit at the end of 2007. The gas price went up. The credit was used for it. Now they are going to raise the price so that 2 billions would be enough for us to compensate for it”.

Leanid Zloynikau thinks that the credit will help Belarusians get used to the new prices.

“Russia will help Belarus get used to higher Russian prices easier so that there would not be any panic: we are being robbed, brothers are getting stifled and so on”.

Let us remind you that the Belarusian authorities started asking for the Russian credit in summer. The Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin charged the head of the Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin to think about “an additional credit” for Belarus on August 4. Experts discussed the terms of the allocation of the credit for 2 or 3 months.