Deficit in the foreign currency at the exchange offices is temporal, the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB) says. “A shortfall in the foreign currency at the exchange offices has been evident in recent days. The banks, however, are trying to maintain a necessary volume of the foreign currency in order to satisfy the people’s demand. This shortage of the currency has been mainly caused by technical reasons. No limits have been envisaged in its sales,” spokesman for the National Bank Mikhail Zhuravovich said. According to the National Bank, a higher demand for the foreign currency has been driven by people’s groundless expectations of the further devaluation of the national currency. “People lose large sums on conversion by changing the Belarusian rubles into the foreign currency,” Mikhail Zhuravovich said. Besides, the banks have recently seen a conversion of deposits in the Belarusian rubles into the deposits in the foreign currency. “In this case individuals lose on conversion as well as in the interests on the deposits in the national currency,” the NBRB spokesman said. On January 2, 2009, the National Bank of Belarus pegged the Belarusian ruble to a basket of foreign currencies. The basket of currencies is made of the US dollar, the euro, and the Russian ruble, with these currencies having equal shares in the basket. The initial ruble cost of the basket was determined at the level of Br960. According to the National Bank, the change is strictly within the five-percent limit of fluctuations allowed in 2009.

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