Belarus Minister Corrects Growth Forecast; Sees '09 at 10-12 pct

Belarus can expect its economy to grow 10-12 percent in 2009, a government official said on Thursday, saying his prediction earlier this week of a sharp slowdown was an error by a government translator.

Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Tour was speaking to Reuters in Minsk after attending an investment forum in London, where officials said his comments were incorrectly translated.

"We naturally expect GDP growth of 10-12 percent, while the world economy is forecast to grow 1-2 percent," Tour said by telephone in the Belarussian capital Thursday. "We see no grounds for now to lower our forecast indicators."

Tour and officials linked to him said growth figures he relayed through an interpreter in London on Tuesday were mistranslated.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an investment forum on Tuesday, he said Belarus would achieve 1-2 percent growth in gross domestic product in 2009 despite a prediction of recession in the first half of the year.

Belarus's Statistics Ministry said GDP growth over the first 10 months of the year stood at 10.7 percent compared to 8.3 percent in the same period of 2007.

The ex-Soviet state, where much of the economy remains in state hands, has enjoyed robust growth in recent years of about 9-10 percent of GDP.

The figure dipped to 8.2 percent for 2007 after steep increases in the prices of energy supplies from neighbouring Russia.

Belarus, which maintains a system of generous benefits and subsidies, says its economy has so far sustained few effects of the world financial crisis but is engaged in talks on securing a $2 billion International Monetary Fund loan.

Authorites, who describe the proposed loan as a "security cushion", have suspended a selective privatisation programme and set aside plans to raise international credits.

The country's veteran president, Alexander Lukashenko, has long been accused in the West of flouting basic rights, but the European Union has lifted a travel ban on him after the release of detainees deemed political prisoners.

(Reporting by Andrei Makhovsky, writing by Ron Popeski; Editing by Toby Chopra)