OREANDA-NEWS. On 11 January 2008 was announced, that the National Bank of Belarus (NBB) does not consider restraining the right to withdraw deposits ahead of schedule, NBB Spokesman Anatoly Drozdov told.

“We are not discussing this matter now, as there are no reasons,” he said.

He went on to say that no restrictions would be imposed on currency purchases by individuals, either. “We did not consider it back in September-December 2008, when our gold and currency reserved dwindled, and people used to buy U.S. USD 30 million a day. We are not going to do it now that the dollar and euro have grown stronger, and wages remained the same,” Drozdov said.

The inflation forecast of the central bank remains between 9% and 11% in 2009, he added.

The devaluation of the ruble is caused “by serious economic needs and necessity to keep the national economy competitive.”

“Since most of our exports are sold in Russia and the EU, our export-oriented producers mostly get Russian rubles and euros, but both the Russian ruble and the euro got weaker over the past four months. Russia has devaluated its ruble 23% against the dollar, and the euro went down roughly the same. This caused shortages of floating capital, while Belarusian goods were too expensive to be traded abroad. We saw a gap that threatened the balance of payment and exchange rate,” he said.

The adjustment of the exchange rate was there to “give an impetus to the Belarusian economy”. A single devaluation is less menacing for the reputation of the ruble than gradual devaluation, he believes.

“We adjusted it once and explained that the ruble would change against the basket of currencies within the limit of 5% we set for this year,” Drozdov said.

“We are strong enough to keep the ruble stable. The IMF loan, Russia’s loan and other sources will be used to have an USD 8-9 billion “airbag” for the economy,” Drozdov said.

He is certain the population will remain unaffected. “The ruble will keep its power, the only change is the ratio to the dollar. We do not use dollars in Belarus to sell or buy. Some traders are eager to change price tags, but they will find it hard to sell. There are no prerequisites for domestic price growth. Imports are getting cheaper – this is true for oil and metals, as well as finished commodities,” he said.

The National Bank of Belarus on January 2 devaluated the Belarusian ruble 20.5% against the U.S. dollar to 2,650 Belarusian rubles per dollar, 20.3% against the euro to 3,703 Belarusian rubles per euro and 17.3% against the Russian ruble to 90.16 Belarusian rubles per Russian ruble.