BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

02/12/2008

World Bank starts assessing macroeconomy in Belarus

MINSK. Dec 2 (Interfax) - World Bank experts started assessing the current macroeconomic situation in Belarus in Minsk on Tuesday, the World Bank's Belarus office told Interfax.

The group is led by senior economists of the World Bank's Europe and Central Asia Poverty Reduction Team Lawrence Bouton and Marina Bakanova.

The World Bank experts are expected to hold consultations with the Belarusian government on matters of economic policies, including macroeconomic reforms, the structure of the state budget, energy reforms, financial discipline and deregulation, and the development of the private sector and of the social welfare system.

Belarus joined the World Bank in July 1992. In 1993-94, the World Bank implemented three lending projects worth $170.2 million in Belarus.

The World Bank is currently running a project to upgrade the social sphere, estimated at $40.43 million, and made a $22.6 million loan for 17 years available to the Belarusian government for this purpose in 2001. In December 2007 the World Bank allocated an additional $15 million for the project.

A $61 million joint project to rehabilitate the worst affected regions of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster was launched in 2006. The World Bank's $50 million loan provided for this purpose is expected to be spent in 2007-10.

In late September 2008, the World Bank gave its go-ahead to a $60 million loan to fund the development of the country's water-supply and water disposal system. These resources will arrive in Belarus in 2009 alongside $125 million intended to upgrade boiler houses and equip them with energy saving gear. The World Bank's aggregate funding under the two projects proposed by the Belarusian government for 2009 will amount to $185 million.

Source:

http://www.interfax.com/3/451129/news.aspx

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