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Belarusians have desperately cracked down on banks and foreign exchange offices to preserve at least part of the value of their savings.
“Banks no longer have foreign currency. Employees ask to wait, maybe a client will bring it,” said a client of Belarusbank, the country’s largest bank, who wanted to remain anonymous.
The national currency is depreciating at a record rate, losing more than 10 percent of its value against the euro and the dollar over the past month due to uncertainty in the face of deepening political divisions and fears of an economic crisis.
The currency has fallen 27 percent in recent years. against the dollar and 33 percent. against the euro.
“Nonsense”
In recent days, many Telegram accounts, widely monitored by the opposition, have urged people to buy foreign currency, destabilizing the ruble, including the Lukashenko regime.
People are also being urged to boycott giant state-owned companies – Lukashenko’s Soviet-style economic backbone – and buy out private companies.
President, re-elected August 9 in controversial elections, condemned this Thursday the “villains” who “call for the destabilization of the financial market.”
“We will not allow the national currency to collapse,” Lukashenko promised in a meeting with state-owned companies, his press service said.
Independent analyst Alexander Vasilyev admits that some people sold the ruble “in protest,” but says the amounts are not so large as to “significantly affect the exchange rate.”
The atmosphere of dissatisfaction permeated the country’s strong IT sector, one of the few success stories in Belarus.
The industry is outraged by the government’s crackdown on protests by repeatedly cutting off internet access and conducting raids on the offices of internet giants, which Lukashenko believes play a significant role in the protests.
More than 2,000 people working in the information technology sector have signed an open letter calling for new elections and an end to political violence and the shutdown of the Internet, threatening to leave the country.
Closed offices
The Minsk offices of Russian internet giant Yandex were searched in mid-August by armed law enforcement officers.
The company’s response is to shut down its work facilities and send all of its approximately 300 employees to work remotely.
Yandex reported that some of its employees had left Minsk, but did not confirm reports that it was preparing to relocate.
Viber responded on Twitter that it had temporarily closed its Minsk office earlier this month due to “the safety of our employees” and “internet problems.”
The office reopened last week, Viber reported.
The political crisis caused by Lukashenko’s re-election, accusing him of falsifying votes, has also seriously affected those sectors of the economy in which the state is actively intervening.
All of this is happening at a time when Russia has reduced its generosity to a smaller neighbor that relies on subsidized energy.
“Strikes in key sectors could further erode growth prospects, which have already been weakened by oil supply disruptions and the pandemic,” Fitch analysts said in a statement.
They estimated that Belarus’ GDP in 2020 will shrink by five percent.
Workers in tractors, heavy machinery and potash factories, considered Lukashenko’s political heart, laid out tools and joined the protests, disappointing government officials.
In recent days, these protests have subsided as workers have been threatened with dismissal and strike leaders have been arrested.
Fitch said last week that strikes at the mines of Belaruskali, the world’s largest potash producer, could reduce the country’s exports.
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