Government to subsidize housing at expense of external debt servicing

November 23, BPN. The Belarusian government has cut expenses for servicing the external public debt by 154.4 million rubels (some $63.8 million), says Directive No. 806 adopted on November 21.

It has entered into force on November 23 after its publication on the National Legal Internet Portal.

The government instructed the finance ministry to spend 123.8 million rubels (about $51.1 million) for extending housing loan subsidies to individuals.

In addition, Biełarusbank and Biełahraprambank will receive 22.5 million rubels in compensation for the losses related to government-subsidized housing construction loans.

The remaining 8 million rubels is to be transferred to the Union State of Russia and Belarus to cover the needs of its standing committee.

This is the second recent reduction of public debt service costs. In early November, the government increased budget subsidies for ONT and STV state-run television channels by 1.1 million rubels (some $449,000) for 2022.