Repaying natural gas debt has not hindered fulfilment of requirements for fifth tranche from EEU Anti-Crisis Fund

In April 2017, Belarus repaid USD 726 million debt for natural gas, partially using gold reserves. Belarus used funds from a special account, which collected current payments of enterprises for natural, as well as the National Bank bonds worth USD 106 million. As of May 1^st, Belarus’ international reserves are likely to somewhat reduce, the net currency supply on the domestic currency market is likely to persist, the EEU Anti-Crisis Fund is likely to allocate the fifth tranche and the National Bank and the Finance Ministry are likely to issue new currency bonds worth circa USD 200 million. One of the benchmarks for obtaining the fifth tranche from the EEU Anti-Crisis Fund is the level of international reserves, which as of July 1^st, 2017 should not be less than USD 5.2 billion. Taking into account the expected revenues, Belarus should be able to ensure that this requirement is met by the due date.