OREANDA-NEWS. July 11, 2011. The Belarusian government has agreed to increase Belarus’ quota in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to 681.5 million SDR from 386.4 million SDR, following the 14th General Review of Quotas by the IMF Board of Governors in December 2010.

Resolution #900 of the Council of Ministers dated July 4instructs the Finance Ministry to complete the required procedures to raise the quota.

As a result of the 14th General Review of Quotas, the IMF has doubled quotas to around 476.8 billion SDR from 238.4 billion SDR and restructured the quotas for some countries.

The increase in quotas means an increase in access to IMF resources. The previous SBA for Belarus totaled 2.27 billion SDR, equivalent to U.S. 3.44 billion (January 2009 through March 2010), or 587% of the previous quota. As a rule, the limit for Stand-By Arrangements is 600% of the quota.

Given Belarus’ application for a new program and loan in May 2011, the new quota enables the country to receive the required volume of financing should Belarus and the IMF come to an agreement. Belarus hopes to borrow from USD 3.5 billion to USD 8 billion from the IMF.