Belarus's central bank net hard currency reserves rose to $150 million on January 1, 2001, from $50 million at the start of last year, the bank's head, Pyotr Prokopovich, said on Feb 2. He told a news conference the bank planned to boost net hard currency reserves to $170 million by the end of 2001. "The task for this year is to maintain this level of reserves, boosting it by 10-15 percent," Prokopovich said.

The central bank foresees spending reserves in coming year to prop up the Belarussian