The International Monetary Fund (IMF) loaned Belarus 700 million dollars, with fund managers praising the planning skills of the country’s authoritarian leader Aleksander Lukashenko, the Belapan news agency reported on 22 October as cited by Deutsche Presse Agentur (dpa). The IMF credit was the second tranche of a total $3.63-billion credit programme approved last year by the fund for the former Soviet republic. The IMF’ announced loan terms include a controlled float of the Belarusian currency, the rouble, tied to a basket of Western currencies, a one-time 20% devaluation of the rouble, and reductions in wage hikes for government employees, among other market reforms. Lukashenko, a former collective farm boss, put the IMF-suggested reforms into effect by presidential fiat. Kato Takatoshi, IMF lead manager for the loan programme to Belarus, praised Lukashenko for solid macroecomomic management limiting the effects of the world financial crisis in Belarus. Notwithstanding the substantial reduction of export volumes, the economic contraction (in Belarus) has been limited in comparison with other nations, Takatoshi said, in comments reported by Belapan.