Belarus president expects Russia to cut oil

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Tuesday that he expects Russia to reduce the prices of gas and oil supplied to Belarus in 2012, local media reported. Most likely the prices for Russia's energy supplies will fall in 2012, Lukashenko said during a working trip to the Minsk Region. The Belarusian leader noted that even with a reduction of Russian oil and gas prices, Belarusians should not expect a collapse in domestic energy prices. "The drop in prices is unlikely to be big. The fund we will save on this will be used to support people, pensioners first of all," Lukashenko said. In Belarus, since the beginning of the year, 95 octane gasoline price has increased by 71 percent, 92 octane gasoline by 79 percent, and diesel fuel by 123 percent. According to the press office of the Belarusian State Petrochemical Industry Concern, the prices were raised "because of the devaluation of the Belarusian ruble and for the purpose of decreasing the losses the oil refineries incur while selling motor fuel in the domestic market, and reducing the speculative export of fuel, which is taken abroad because of a considerable disparity between motor fuel prices in Belarus and neighboring states." The Belarusian ruble has been devalued 189 percent since the beginning of the year. The Belarusian national bank raised its refinancing rate to 40 percent from 35 percent last week in the 11th increase this year. Consumer prices rose 92.3 percent in October from a year earlier compared with 79.6 percent in September.