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| Sunday, November 11, 2001, updated at 22:00(GMT+8) |
Putin: Oil Prices Drop Not to Hit Russian Economy |
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that he does not think a drop in world oil prices will have much negative impact on Russia's economy.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that he does not think a drop in world oil prices will have much negative impact on Russia's economy.
"The budget has been drawn up on the basis of a pessimistic forecast for oil prices," so acceptable drops of oil prices at the world market will produce little negative impact on Russia's economy, Putin told some visiting U.S. journalists in the Kremlin before his visit to Washington next week.
"But if oil prices continue to go down below the lowest line (18 U.S. dollars per barrel) envisioned in the budget, we shall have to take additional measures, and to improve administrative and other aspects of our work," Putin said.
The recent drop in oil prices "has not caused any panic" in Russia, Puting said, adding "We keep thinking about this problem and are considering various options."
Putin noted that a great deal of work had been done over the past 18 months to reduce the country's dependence on oil prices for economic growth, citing "revolutionary changes" in the tax sphere and the work to free the economy from bureaucratic practice.
Last year, Russia's economic growth stood at 8.3 percent. This biggest growth in years could not be attributed exclusively to higher oil prices, but to better performance of Russia's light industry, the president said.
"Regarding oil prices, we favor the corridor indicated by the OPEC, between 21 dollars and 26-27 dollars for a barrel. Such a corridor would create favorable conditions for the oil consumers and allow oil producers to tackle their economic and social problems," he said.
Russia has no plans to reduce oil production, because of increased consumption of oil and petroleum products in Winter and Russia's commitment to "coordinating actions with the OPEC," Putin said.
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