Belarus needs flexible currency, economy shrinking 2 pct in 2015 - IMF
(Adds background on economy)
MINSK, March 16 (Reuters) - Belarus will have to allow a flexible currency rate to receive further financial support from the International Monetary Fund, the body's chief envoy to Minsk said on Monday, predicting the country's economy would shrink by two percent in 2015.
The former Soviet republic's economy has been battered by a plunge in the Russian rouble and the conflict in Ukraine and earlier this month the finance ministry said it would ask the IMF for a new financing package.
To secure a new IMF programme, Belarus must express at the highest level its intentions of carrying out a comprehensive package of measures, the IMF's David Hoffman said at a briefing in Minsk.
These measures should include a flexible exchange rate and suitably tight monetary policy, he added.
Belarus received a $3.5 billion standby loan from the IMF in 2009-2010 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.
The Belarussian government forecasts the economy shrinking 0.2-0.5 percent this year, after growth of 1.6 percent in 2014.
The central bank introduced obligatory foreign currency sales to protect the Belarussian rouble from economic turmoil in neighbouring Russia over Western sanctions and a sliding oil price. It has since eased the restrictions, but said the currency will remain under pressure in 2015.
(Reporting by Andrei Makhovsky; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; editing by Ralph Boulton)
