Belarusians keep twice more money at home than National Bank has in gold
Belarusians have 11 billion U.S. dollars on hand. There are only 5 billion on bank accounts.
The head of the National Bank Piotr Prakapovich announced this sum a few days ago. Thus, the population has more money than the state. The experts think that if this money was directed to the bank system in due time, today's crisis could have been avoided.
The National Bank explains the situation as follows:
“People buy much foreign currency. They bought 1,5 billion dollars of the gold-value reserve for last year, and 500 million dollars for this March only. The population continues buying currency thus creating the deficit. Belarusians have 11 billion dollars on hand now”.
To compare, the gold-value reserves of the country make only 4 billion dollars. Less than 5 billion are kept on bank accounts. The head of the National Bank's information department Anatol Drazdou says:
“Don't forget that 4,7 billion are on bank accounts. This is a real, calculated number”.
Anatol Drazdou thinks that the sum of 11 billion is highly possible.
Anatol Drazdou: “I think this is possible. Why not? Look at our yards, how many expensive cars are parked there, and imagine how much money was spent on them”.
People continue buying golden ingots, having bought all the currency. The National Bank found a "convenient" expalanation of the situation. They say that Belarusians are rich people…
“Is it bad for a country when its people are rich? Each country only benefits from this ,no matter whether this money is in dollars or roubles. People collect money in order to spend it someday. This money goes to the market sooner or later, thus satisfying the citizens' needs”.
However, an economist Dzmitry Kruk is convinced that if this money was directed to the bank system in due time, today's problems could have been avoided:
“We need to speak about lost opportunities to improve current economic state. If this money was directed to the bank systyem, and, most important, if people exchanged them for Belarusian roubles, it would have been an advantageous resource for the Belarusian economy”.
