OREANDA-NEWS. A failure to meet privatization targets in the sector of state-owned property is not a good reason for the Financial Bailout Fund of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) to put on hold the next tranche of the stand-by loan for Belarus.

“This is a proxy indicator, and a failure to meet privatization targets cannot be regarded as a failure of the standby programme,” the Eurasian Development Bank’s Deputy CEO Sergei Shatalov told reporters. At the same time, Shatalov admitted that the medium-term effects of the standby programme would still be affected if Belarus failed to implement the state property privatization programme: the country will have to tighten its monetary management policy in order to reduce the pressure on the payment balance and international reserves.

In the meantime, the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) has not yet analyzed the report by Belarus’ Finance Ministry about fulfilling the terms of the fifth tranche of the EurAsEC standby loan.

The parties have been negotiating the framework conditions for economic stability in 2013 since February 21. They still need to clarify a few technical terms, Shatalov informed.

As previously reported, Belarus’ State Property Committee chief Georgi Kuznetsov has publicly declared on two occasions since early this year that Belarus will fail to gain USD 2.5 billion privatization proceeds from sales of minatory stakes in OJSC Belaruskali, OJSC Naftan, OJSC Grodno Azot, OJSC BelAZ, OJSC BATE. In turn, President Alexander Lukashenko dismissed plans to sell state-owned property as allegations.