Oil at $70 Per Bbl Key to Secure Budget Surplus for Russia by 2017

Russia will try to conduct a careful budget policy and have a non-deficit budget by 2017. However, this will be possible only with oil prices not dropping lower than $70 per barrel, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.

MOSCOW, January 27 (Sputnik) – Russia’s revised governmental anti-crisis plan forecasts a non-deficit budget by 2017 if oil prices remain above $70 per barrel, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Tuesday.

“It’s written in the anti-crisis plan that we will conduct a careful budget policy and by 2017 we have the goal of a non-deficit budget with a forecasted price for oil at $70 per barrel,” Siluanov told journalists.

On January 14, Siluanov said Russia was likely to take steps to optimize its expenditures, with the country's budget deficit in 2015 standing between two and three percent.

Russian budget depends heavily on energy exports. Due to a dramatic drop in oil prices, the country is currently experiencing an economic downturn.

On Monday, March futures for Brent crude fell by 0.95 percent, reaching $48.33 per barrel, while the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures for March delivery dropped by 1.13 percent to $45.08 per barrel.

Global oil prices started have fallen sharply since summer 2014 amid an oversupply in the market. However, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) last November decided to keep the member nations' oil output levels unchanged.