Stanislau Bahdankevich: creeping devaluation is coming

The former chairman of the National Bank comments on the prospects of the domestic currency.

Belarusian ruble is losing ground again. After a week of strengthening against major foreign currencies, he has again fallen down, informs Belsat. Compared to tradings on Tuesday, the dollar rose by 92 rubles, euro - by 31 rubles. Economists forecast further - albeit slow - depreciation of the Belarusian currency.

"If the monetary policy of the authorities, who declared that the main indicator of inflation was the exchange rate, is determined by supply and demand, it is a creeping devaluation that is coming," said ex-chairman of the National Bank Stanislau Bahdankevich.

However, from the beginning of the year only, the creeping devaluation of the ruble has already taken half of the value of the Belarusian ruble against the dollar.

Let us recall that since January, the US currency has risen in value by 47 percent, while the euro has risen by 36 percent. Russian ruble has risen by over a quarter.

Earlier in August “EuroBelarus” Information Service published a comment of Belarus National Bank as to why Belarusan ruble is falling. Pavel Kallaur, Chairman of the Board of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB), claimed that “the Belarusian currency market has been affected by the drastic decrease in global prices for oil, a considerable decrease in the strength of the Russian ruble, the Chinese yuan, and the Kazakh tenge”.