Belarus' foreign debt has dropped to 16.6 billion U.S. dollars as of September 1, 2018, the Belarusian Finance Ministry said on Friday.

As of September 1, 2018, the external debt of Belarus fell by 173.1 million U.S. dollars, or 1.0 percent from the beginning of the year, taking into account the exchange rate differences, the Ministry said.

In January-August 2018, Belarus attracted foreign loans worth 1.632 billion U.S. dollars. The country repaid 1.637 billion U.S. dollars.

In total, the state debt of Belarus was 44 billion Belarusian rubles (about 20.82 billion U.S. dollars) as of September 1, up by 1.8 billion Belarusian rubles (about 0.85 billion U.S. dollars) or 4.3 percent from the beginning of the year.