Belarus seeks $400 mln from Iran, $7 bln from IMF

Belarus is seeking a $400 million loan from Iran and hopes to agree a new $7 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund, central bank's management board Chairwoman Nadezhda Yermakova and Deputy Finance Minister Vladimir Amarin said on Monday. "The question of raising loans worth some $400 million from Iran is under consideration. The Iranian party has already taken a decision in principle," Yermakova told the Belarusian parliament. "AnIMF mission to assess the economic situation in the country starts work tomorrow (on Tuesday). Maybe this will move on to considering a new program. Its volume stands at $7 billion," Amarin told journalists. Minsk asked the IMF for help in June after it had to devalue its ruble in response to a large trade deficit, generous wage increases and loans granted by the government ahead last December's presidential election. But the IMF said the government had failed to present a sound economic program and promised to send a new mission to Minsk in October. In September, Belarus said it may abandon plans to raise an $8 billion loan from the IMF and would put a $1 billion credit from Russian bank Sberbank to a local company into state reserves. In June, Minsk also agreed to a $3 billion loan in several tranches over three years from the anti-crisis fund of the EurAsEC, a post-Soviet economic bloc led by Russia.