MINSK, 3 May (BelTA) – The Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus (DBRB) registered a record-high financial support for the country's export in Q1 2021, DBRB representatives told BelTA.
According to the source, the bank continues stepping up financial support for Belarusian export this year. In Q1 2021 the bank provided the equivalent of Br384.2 million in export loans, with the growth rate at 178% as against January-March 2020. As of 1 April 2021 the Development Bank's export loan portfolio totaled the equivalent of Br633.2 million.
In Q1 2021 the Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus granted loans to finance the export of rolled metal products (22.3%), automobiles and components (18.6%), tractors and components (17.8%), paints and varnishes (5.9%). Textile products and disinfectants were added to the list of exports the bank financed.
As for the geographical distribution of the loans, Russia accounted for 56.2% of the DBRB's export loans, Lithuania – 18.2%, Kazakhstan – 5.7%. Support for Belarusian export to Ukraine, Poland, Mongolia, and Singapore was expanded. In particular, more loans were channeled into the export of Belarusian civil engineering services in the course of building schools and kindergartens in Russia's Kaluga Oblast and Voronezh Oblast.
Deliveries of Lidagroprommash seeding machines, Gomselmash harvesters, and MAZ trucks to Africa in Q1 2021 were financed thanks to cooperation with the Eastern And Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB).
Uzbekistan was one of the new markets that buy Belarusian products with financial support of direct export loans and interbank export loans. In particular, the Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus signed a direct export loan to finance deliveries of MTZ tractors to Uzbekistan and signed individual credit agreements with the Uzbek banks Asaka and Kapitalbank to finance deliveries of Belarusian retail equipment and MAZ vehicles.
In 2021 the Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus will continue working hard to increase and diversify the export loan portfolio, the source stressed.
