Council of Heads of CIS Governments to discuss an agreement on currency
regulation in May

2008-04-05 22:08:00

ArmInfo. The Council of Heads of CIS Governments will consider an
agreement on the basic principles of policy in the sphere of currency
regulation and control in the CIS states, Vladimir Kiblov, the deputy
head of the currency regulation department at the Head Currency
Regulation Department of the National Bank of Belarus, told
journalists.

As RIA Novosti reports, this agreement stipulates liberalization of
some aspects of capital flow among the countries which ratified it,
Kiblov said. To note, Kiblov is one of the developers of the agreement.
According to him, this document includes 7 operations, the restrictions
on which are to be lifted as soon as the agreement is signed. These
operations include export and import estimations, non-trading payments
(e.g. alimony and pensions), purchase of government securities, opening
of accounts in banks by natural persons, acquisition of shares as
direct investments in property of legal persons, etc. In addition, the
agreement stipulates that the restrictions on providing credits to the
residents of other CIS countries (both natural and legal persons), as
well as on acquisition of securities of legal persons at stock
exchanges will be lifted within 2 years after the document is signed by
the countries.

Kiblov said that the document was worked out by 6 CIS countries:
Tajikistan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Russia.
However, he added that the rest of the CIS countries may also sign this
agreement and join the liberalization of the capital flow. At the same
time, he pointed out that a part of the restrictions on some items of
the capital flow has already been lifted in the CIS as the countries
signed the so-called "eighth article of IMF". These restrictions
include transfers of revenues from investments and non-trading
operations of natural persons (pensions, alimony, etc.). The
representative of the National Bank of Belarus also noted that if the
economic situation in the country changes, the cancellation of some
restrictions on the flow of funds may be suspended, and the country
should inform about this within a three-day term.