National bank of Belarus takes away euro from its currency basket

The National Bank of Belarus is going to remove the euro from its currency basket. Now, the Russian ruble accounts for 60% of the basket, the U.S. dollar for 30% and the Chinese yuan for 10%.

The bank said that the trade between Belarus, Russia and China has shown steady growth this year.

«On the other hand, our turnover with the European Union has plunged as well as transactions in euro,» the bank noted.

The currency and stock exchange of Belarus also reported sharp growth in trade with the Russian ruble and a decrease in the number of transactions with the euro.

Thus, the national bank has decided to withdraw the euro from the currency basket starting from December 12. However, the stock exchange will continue to trade with the euro. The official exchange rate of the euro is going to be set based on the  Euro/USD cross rate at global financial markets.

The previous composition of the currency basket in Belarus was the following: ruble (50%), U.S. dollar (30%), Euro (10%) and yuan also 10%.

In October, Belarus reported a 1.1% growth in gold and currency reserves ($7.5 billion).

This year the rate was higher than the October level only in May ($7.76 billion) and February-March ($8.5 billion and $8.2 billion respectively).