BELARUS (from 2016) - Belarusian ruble [BYN]

1 rubel = 100 kapeek

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Belarus has introduced transitional money on the path to its own national currency. These were coupons exchanged for 10 Soviet rubles [SUR], which looked like poorly secured papers with denominations stamped by authorities. On May 25, 1992, the first banknotes of the Belarusian ruble [BYL] were issued with face values of 0.5-100 rubles. They were used in circulation next to the old Soviet ruble banknotes for another year. The transition to a market economy was very difficult, and in fact it continues to this day. The disintegration of the USSR broke many trade routes and the domestic production collapsed. On August 20, 1994 ruble devalued by ten times, and the new banknotes [BYB] no longer contained the first coat of arms of the Republic "Pahonia". No financial reform however, followed the devaluation. Galloping inflation (over 2000% in 1994) forced the introduction of higher and higher denominations of banknotes. In 1999, when a banknote of 5,000,000 rubles appeared in circulation, it was decided to devalue the currency again, this time by three zeros removed from prices. On January 1, 2000 new banknotes of Belarusian ruble [BYR] were issued, which were exchanged for 1,000 old rubles [BYB]. On November 30 of this year, Belarus and Russia signed an agreement on the forming of the monetary union. With injections of money from Russia, the inflation has been lowered officially to below 10% in 2005. However, after the talks about the union were broken at the end of 2005, Belarusian ruble [BYR] began to weaken again. On January 2, 2009, the National Bank devalued the ruble by 20%, on May 24, 2011 again, this time by 56% and on October 20, 2011 by another 52%. The currency reform, for which new banknotes and the first circulation coins had been ordered, were postponed. During the currency crisis of 2014, the ruble [BYR] was devalued by another 25%, and in January 2015 alone the National Bank has lowered the value of the ruble by almost 30%. At the end of 2015 the official rate of the US dollar [USD] was set at ca. 18,000 rubles, while in 2000, when the ruble [BYR] was introduced, the exchange rate amounted to slightly above 1,000 rubles. On July 1, 2016, Ruble was denominated by four zeros and the first circulation coins produced once with the date 2009 and the notes prepared at the same time were issued. It was the beginning of the Belarusian ruble [BYN].