OREANDA-NEWS. February 1, 2013. Belarus may be there to witness a small-scale devaluation of the local currency in 2012, with the Belarusian ruble smoothly and steadily devaluated against major currencies to the same extent as in 2012.

First Vice Chairman of the National Bank of Belarus (NBB) Nikolai Luzgin made a statement to this effect at a press-conference.

“There is no doubt there will be some shifts in the rate of the Belarusian ruble. With inflation growth expected at 10-12% in 2013, evidently there must be some small-scale devaluation to the same extent as in 2012. If we are talking about a small-scale smooth devaluation in the context of growing real money incomes and GDP growth, then there is nothing scary about that,” Luzgin said.

In his words, in 2012 the exchange rate of the Belarusian ruble against US dollar dropped by 2.6%, against euro by 5%, against the Russian ruble by 8%. At the same time, the real effective rate of the Belarusian ruble grew 14.9%, which means the ruble grew stronger, Luzgin said.

He emphasized that in 2013 the National Bank does not face the challenge of artificially controlling the exchange rate. The central bank will only be there to smooth away abrupt fluctuations and maintain stability on the financial market.