OREANDA-NEWS. Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko has announced that the country has stabilized its foreign currency market.

“It is very important that the domestic currency market has been stabilized lately. The people have calmed down somehow and enterprises now sell more foreign currency,” Lukashenko said at a meeting with Prime-Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich, who was summoned to report progress in the economy.

Lukashenko acknowledged that Belarusian people had accumulated a considerable amount of foreign currency. “I don't know what they were preparing for and why, although we have always said that we are not going to allow a rapid devaluation of the national currency and will do our best to support our national currency. But certainly not at the expense of exports,” Lukashenko said.

Lukashenko instructed the premier to take advantage of the latest period of stabilization “in order to sort out certain economic matters”.

After the meeting, Premier Myasnikovich told reporters that foreign currency sales by individuals exceeded foreign currency sales by almost USD 300 million as of July 21. “It means that people sell more foreign cash to banks than they buy from banks. The fact is a sign of certain stability because when people felt insecure, they would convert their salaries into foreign currency in anticipation of some unexpected wave of devaluation. The relevant rumours stated that the ruble would fall after the ice hockey world championship in Minsk. There are no objective reasons for that to happen,” Myasnikovich said.

In his words, Belarus' gold and foreign exchange reserves has increased recently not only at the expense of external borrowings. “After January-May 2014 we have a surplus of the foreign trade in merchandise and services. It is a factor of stability. This is something that was non-existent in previous years,” Myasnikovich said. He also added that quite favourable prospects are opening up due to agreements with Russia, including the agreement for the Belarusian state budget to keep a certain share of proceeds from oil export duties that used to be transferred to the Russian budget.