Belarusian Head of State Alexander Lukashenko assured that the Belarusian ruble will not collapse. The President made such a statement as he paid a visit to the Lidselmash company in the Grodno oblast on February 10, BelTA informs. “Manufacturers would like the ruble to devalue by another 20%. But we have promised the people not to devalue the currency and we will keep the promise. Let them seek additional opportunities to reduce the prime cost of products. Manufacturers insist on the collapse during any crisis. But there are ten millions of Belarusians. We have devalued the ruble by 20% and explained why we did so. Russians have already devalued their ruble by 40%,” the Belarusian leader stressed. Alexander Lukashenko noted that natural gas, energy and metal have become cheaper. Therefore, the President believes, it is necessary to seek ways to reduce expenditures, cut the prime cost of products. “There will be no collapse, no one-off devaluation,” the President assured. The National Bank is on firm ground, the gold and foreign currency reserves are sufficient. We used around 15-17% of them during the most difficult period in order not to collapse. We have restored them back. Plus a $1 billion loan from Russia. Why do we have to devalue the national currency? We need to work in these conditions. Therefore, there will be no one-off devaluation. There is no need for that,” the President said. The President added that Belarus is now suffering losses because Russia is devaluing its currency much faster. “But we will compensate for that from other sources. We have reserves and we will use them,” the President said.

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