Moscow, Minsk agree what to do in case of termination of rouble circulation in Belarus

The Russian-Belarussian working group has coordinated the draft agreement on the procedure of settling mutual demands and commitments in case of termination of the validity of the basic agreement on the use of the Russian rouble as the only legal payment currency in the territory of Belarus, the Russian Finance Ministry reported.

The ministry's press release says that the day before, the working group for drafting an inter-governmental agreement on the use of the Russian rouble as the only legal payment currency in the territory of Belarus held its session under the chairmanship of Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin and Chairman of the Board of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus Pyotr Prokopovich.

The session also took a decision on working out, before January 1, 2004, the draft agreement between the governments of the Russian Federation and of Belarus on the methods and the procedure of calculating the gross domestic products of the two states.