OREANDA-NEWS. November 03, 2009. The Belarusian ruble depreciated against the basket of currencies of Belarus’ main trade partners 17.18% in real terms in January-September 2009, according to the National Bank of Belarus (NBB).

The Belarusian ruble depreciated against the Russian ruble 13.88% in the period, against the Ukrainian hryvna 18.62%, against the euro 22.31%, and against the U.S. dollar 17.77%.

Against the Latvian lat the Belarusian ruble lost 23.41% of its value, against the Lithuanian litas 23.61%, against the British pound sterling 24.04%, and against the Kazakh tenge the Belarusian ruble appreciated 0.83%.

IMF experts had insisted on a depreciation of the Belarusian ruble during the talks with the Belarusian government over a stand-by facility, and on January 2, 2009 the central bank devaluated the national currency 20.5% against the U.S. dollar, 20.3% against the euro and 17.3% against the Russian ruble.

Starting May 1, 2004 all countries, whose share in Belarus’ trade turnover is above 1%, are considered Belarus’ trade partners. Earlier, only currencies of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and Poland were included in the basket of currencies.