MOSCOW, January 13. The Finance Ministry expects in the near future a further decline in oil prices, said Finance Minister Anton Siluanov at the Gaidar forum, organized by the Ranepa and the Gaidar Institute.
See also
From high to collapse: the dynamics of oil prices since 2000
“In terms of slowing global economic growth and large oil reserves is unlikely in the near future we can expect some changes in the direction of increasing prices on this product. Now comes a very hard balancing the oil market. No one cuts production, and, most likely, in the nearest future we will observe further price reductions on this product,” he said.
The Russian budget is balanced at an oil price of $82 per barrel, will a change in the budget strategy, said Siluanov.
“It is necessary to consider measures to bring the budget in line with the new reality,” he said. “The budget is balanced at a price of us $ 82/bbl,” he said.
Now the price of Urals oil below $30 per barrel.
Ministries and agencies should by 10% to cut budget spending
Ministries and agencies should by 10% to reduce Federal spending in 2016, the priorities they will identify themselves, said the Minister of Finance.
“We agreed that the ministries and agencies receiving appropriations in 2016, determine the priorities of these allocations, make decisions about choosing a major most effective costs and cut inefficient spending and will submit to the Ministry of Finance proposals for the optimization of the expenditure side of the budget by about 10 per cent,” he said.
According to Siluanov, the state-owned companies needed to bring their budgets to the new economic realities, as this sector occupies a significant place in the Russian economy.
“The state-owned companies, which occupy a large part of the economy, it is necessary to implement actions to bring their budgets into line with the new conditions, it is impossible to speak about adaptation in General public sector to the new conditions”, – he said.
On privatization
The Russian budget may receive additional privatization of state property about 1 trillion rubles for 2016-2017, said Anton Siluanov.
“Privatization is the challenge to get a trillion rubles within 2 years from the additional sale of property of the state, it is quite a realistic figure,” he said.
About the budget deficit
The deficit of the Russian budget in 2015 amounted to 2.6% of GDP, said the Finance Minister. “The budget deficit last year was 2.6% of GDP. This is lower than we had originally planned, but I remember it was at 3%,” he said.
Earlier the Finance Ministry had forecast that the deficit will be 2.8-2.9 per cent.
On the debt
The Finance Ministry is in favour of strict fiscal policy and warns against hasty increase in government debt, said Siluanov.
“In the current difficult conditions, we need to talk about a very economical, tight fiscal policy, in order not to slip into high levels of deficit and not to slip into large amounts of debt
