IMF recommends Belarus to speed up reforms

IMF experts forecast the recession of the Belarusan economy in 2016 and 2017.

It is only in 2018 that the Belarusan citizens can expect some improvement of the economy.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommends Belarus to speed up reforms in its state-own enterprise (SOE) sector, head of the IMF Mission for Belarus Peter Dohlman told. “The reforms need to provide for the development of private companies and guarantee equal opportunities to all the companies. This issue is complex and requires continuous evaluation and analysis. At the same time such steps are undelayable. We believe that the government should speed up reforms in the SOE sector, including reorganization in cases where necessary,” BelTA quotes Peter Dohlman saying.

This should be accompanied by efforts to create new jobs and strengthen the system of social support (improving reliability of the system of unemployment benefits and personnel retraining). Special attention should be paid to the support of the most vulnerable categories of people. “The system of social support should be targeted at the categories of people who need it in the first place,” the head of the IMF Mission to Belarus said.

“We believe that Belarus can see the GFP growth exceeding 4.5% in the mid-term if it speeds up reforms,” Peter Dohlman emphasized. An IMF mission led by Peter Dohlman visited Belarus from 21 to 30 June to assess the current economic policy and hold annual consultations with authorities under Article IV.