National Bank Warns Of Financial Crisis In Belarus

• 1.02.2025, 10:59

Three benchmarks have been reached.

The National Bank is concerned about the population's high growth rates of lending. This was stated by Deputy Chairman of the Board of the National Bank Dzmitry Kalechits in a report on how to ensure financial stability.

"Although at the moment the risks in financing [in lending - Ed.] individuals are at an acceptable level, the continuation of trends in lending to the population in the future may pose a threat to financial and price stability," said Dmitry Kalechits.

Recall that in Belarus the population has set new records for loans. Thus, the debt to banks as of January 1 of this year exceeded 26 billion rubles. This follows from the data of the National Bank. Specifically, the bar of 10 billion rubles has been reached for consumer loans and 16 billion for real estate. That is, three psychological benchmarks have been reached.

Let us recall that the National Bank previously announced inflation and devaluation risks for the Belarusian economy, which are associated, among other things, with the fact that the population and businesses are actively taking out loans. Experts also see risks for the national currency in this.

For February 2025, the National Bank decided not to increase the calculated values of standard risk — the interest rate ceiling on bank loans, primarily for real estate.