Industry requires accelerated devaluation in Belarus

Belarus’ First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko, who is responsible for industry, said on October 31^st that the Belarusian rouble needed to be devalued more quickly.

Since early 2014, the Russian rouble has devalued by more than 30%, which means that Belarusian products have lost their competitiveness on the Russian market. Nevertheless, the National Bank is unlikely to listen to the industrial lobby – it does not plan changes to the currency exchange rate policy, which is tied to the US Dollar and a currencies basket, not to the Russian rouble. In order to help the industry, the National Bank might increase the volume of available loans, the government will restrict wage growth in the economy, and the number of enterprises operating part-time might grow. Devaluation processes in Belarus might accelerate only if the US Dollar weakens against other hard currencies.