"If OPEC sets production ceilings to stabilize oil prices, Russia is not going to do it," the Minister said in an interview broadcast live by the Russian Mayak radio station.
"In case world oil prices remain high we will keep expanding production to take advantage of the situation," Kudrin said. "Should the prices start falling, however, we are not going to set artificial hurdles for expansion of the global economy." Today, according to Kudrin, Russia's oil sector accounts for 2-3 percent of the national economic growth.
The goal of doubling the country's GDP by 2010 set by Russian President Vladimir Putin is based, Kudrin pointed out, on a forecast envisaging high world oil prices. The current market situation gives us an opportunity to attain that goal, the Minister said.
According to him, Russia must sustain an annual growth rate of no less that 7.2 percent to double its GDP by 2010.
"Given the forthcoming reforms we plan to launch, the growth rate may prove to be even higher," Kudrin pointed out.
The Finance Minister also said that an amended bill on replacing social benefits with monetary compensations would be submitted to the State Duma on Saturday.
"The move will be followed by a nationwide and truly democratic discussion of the proposed welfare reform," the Minister said.
"Most elderly people support us," Alexei Kudrin pointed out. The current welfare system of benefits is unfair because people simply cannot make use of many of these benefits, he emphasized. "The current system of benefits begets injustice and embezzlement," the Minister said, stressing that the above was the main reason why the Government had decided to initiate major changes in the country's current welfare system.
He confirmed that the 2005 federal budget would set aside additional 170 billion rubles ($1 equals about 29 rubles) for payment of monetary compensations to replace social benefits. "This is our priority and we are sure to make the new system work," the Russian Finance Minister assured the audience.
In addition, he said, compensations "would be continuously adjusted, just like the pensions, according to the current inflation index; occasionally these adjustments may even exceed the rate of inflation." As far as pensions are concerned, the Government, in a similar fashion, intends to "keep them steadily growing at a rate exceeding the rate of inflation," Alexei Kudrin added.
