MINSK, October 26 (RIA Novosti) - Belarus has received a $699.5 million tranche of a $3.63 billion standby loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the press office of the Belarusian National Bank said on Monday.

The loan tranche was disbursed following the second review by the IMF Executive Board on October 22 of Belarus's performance under an economic program supported by a Stand-By Arrangement (SBA).

Belarus has now received around $2.2 billion under the IMF stand-by arrangement.

On January 12, 2009, the IMF approved a 15-month standby loan worth about $2.5 billion and the Fund's experts later recommended to the IMF board that the loan be increased to $3.63 billion.

Russia decided late last year to allocate a $2 billion loan to Belarus. The former Soviet republic has already received $1.5 billion, but Russia's Finance Ministry has refused to disburse the last tranche, saying it needed to assess carefully the prospects of loan repayment.