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Belarusian PM promises to compensate exporters for losses from Russian rouble devaluation

“We must set off losses they are sustaining due to circumstances beyond their control, and we will do it. We do have funds for that. Including proceeds from the currency tax,” he said

Belarusian Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich ITAR-TASS/Aleksandr Astafyev

Belarusian Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich

© ITAR-TASS/Aleksandr Astafyev

MINSK, December 21. /TASS/. Belarusian Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich said on Sunday Belarusian exporters should be compensated for their losses from the devaluation of the Russian rouble.

“We must set off losses they are sustaining due to circumstances beyond their control, and we will do it. We do have funds for that. Including proceeds from the currency tax,” he said, obviously referring to a 30-cercent tax on currency purchases.

He said a mechanism of support to exports had partially been developed. “It provides for interest-free loans to companies to cover a gap in their earnings due to the devaluation of the Russian rouble,” Myasnikovich said. So, the government “will compensate, if not completely but to a larger extent, for the gap a company may have due to the devaluation of the currencies of our importer countries.”

More to it, “import prices in Russia, our key trade partner, considerably lag behind the devaluation of the national currency,” he said. “This gap will be set off by the government. Such decisions have already been taken by the government and approved by the president.”.

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