Russian Finance Minister Siluanov expects oil price to go under $30 per bar

Anton Siluanov file photo

(Interfax – December 12, 2015)

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov anticipates that price for oil in some periods of time in 2016 could drop to $30 per barrel.

“We had hardly passed the budget before we saw that the macroeconomic situation was changing. It’s changing not for the better. We based our budget on the presumption that the price would be $50 per barrel, and now it’s about $36-$37 per barrel. Nobody knows what’s going to be next,” Siluanov said at a board meeting of the financial, treasury, and tax agencies of Tatarstan on Saturday.

The oil price can be affected, in particular, by global oil overproduction and Iran’s entry into the market, he said.

“Everything shows that low oil prices are likely to dominate next year, and it’s possible that this could be $30 per barrel or even lower in some periods – we don’t know. Because if someone had told us a year ago that it was going to be under $40, everyone would’ve probably laughed. Therefore, we should be preparing for not very easy times for ourselves,” he said.

[featured image is file photo]

 

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