This paper contains the results of examination of the experience of foreign countries in legislative support of the circular economy, summarizes the chronology of its  development at the European Union level, and identifies the reasons why the transition to the model of a closed-cycle economy is gaining momentum in the world.

The article includes best practices for development of circular economy and its implementation. It is stated that each country has national peculiarities of transition to this concept, as well as various priority directions of implementation caused by set of advantages and risks. The barriers which constrain access of the circular projects to bank financing, and confine its utilization as a result, are identified. Authors put special emphasis to the innovative business models providing the circular system of production and consumption, including Circular suppliers, Resources recovery, Sharing platforms, Product life extension, Product as a service.

In the article the categories of “money” and “monetary funds” are analyzed and the author’s interpretation of these definitions are given. Taking into account the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies, the author proposes a structure of interrelations of monetary funds, tokens, electronic and virtual money. With the purpose of giving a clearer understanding of the government positions on the issue of the virtual money market development, the article provides examples of operations’ regulations with cryptocurrencies in a number of countries.

In the article the essence of electronic and digital money is analyzed, comparative analysis of these two categories is carried out, taking into account their distinctive characteristics and common elements. Virtual money, including cryptocurrencies, is distinguished as a subspecies of digital money. Cryptocurrencies are analyzed based on the most famous ones, such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple, DASH, etc.

This paper deals with the prospects of Belarus’ economic growth in regional context. Such focus of analysis emphasizes relative level of well-being as the benchmark for assessing economic performance of the country. In this study, I use Czech Republic and Slovakia as benchmarks for Belarus, as they are rather similar to Belarus according to a range of fundamental characteristics, and at the same time, they are among leaders on well-being level in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).

International rankings are the second important source after mass media which investors use to learn about business climate in a foreign country. Today Belarus is represented only in the ratings with free participation.