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MINSK Aug 26 (Reuters) - The central bank of
Belarus, which is struggling to contain a balance of payments
crisis, on Friday expanded a list of foreign currencies that
exporters must convert into local roubles, saying exporters were
dodging currency rules.
Belarus had to devalue its rouble by 36 percent in
May in an effort to plug a hole in its budget and stem a balance
of payments crisis triggered by excessive government spending.
Analysts say companies are unwilling to sell foreign
currency at the official exchange rate because it is much higher
than the market rate.
The central bank dominates the official foreign exchange
market where all exporters must convert 30 percent of their
revenues denominated in certain foreign currencies into Belarus
roubles. That requirement was introduced in 2006 to help the
central bank replenish its foreign exchange reserves and ensure
it had enough foreign currency to sell to key importers.
Until now, 12 foreign currencies were subject to the
mandatory conversion requirement, including the U.S. dollar
, the euro , the British pound , the yen
, the Australian dollar , the Russian rouble
and a number of Western European currencies.
On Friday, the central bank said it had added 10 more
currencies to the list, including the Chinese yuan , the
Turkish lira , the Kazakh tenge and a number of
Eastern European currencies.
The bank, in a statement, said that in order to avoid
mandatory foreign currency sales, Belarussian companies had
"significantly increased exports" settled in currencies that
were not on the original list.
On the black market in Belarus, individual sellers offer
cash dollars at around 8,500 roubles per dollar, whereas the
official exchange rate is 5,053 roubles per dollar.
Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko said this week
that Minsk would adjust its foreign exchange policy to reinforce
confidence in the Belarussian rouble and avoid a further
devaluation, but gave no details of the plan.
(Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Susan Fenton)
