On May 28, Minsk / Vladimir Matveev - BELTA /. The Ministry of Finance of Belarus is projecting a deficit of 1.5% in the draft budget for 2011. This was announced to journalists today by the First Deputy Minister of Finance of Belarus, Vladimir Amarin, as reported by a BELTA correspondent. According to Vladimir Amarin, the projected budget deficit is quite stringent at 1.5% of GDP. The same deficit is planned for the medium term up to 2013. "Today, work is underway in the ministries to form the main indicators of their activities for 2011, which must be submitted to the Ministry of Finance by June 1 for analysis and work with the ministries on the specific parameters of next year's budget," he said. Answering a question about the sources from which the planned budget deficit is expected to be covered, Vladimir Amarin expressed confidence that such sources would be found for the 1.5%. He did not rule out that the Ministry of Finance would resume the placement of T-bills (treasury bills). Vladimir Amarin noted that T-bills were practically not placed in the past and current years. "Of course, we will plan for this so that this market starts working. Today, there is a need and demand for government securities to be in the portfolio of the same banks as a liquid instrument," said Vladimir Amarin. -0-

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