Russian fin minister sees economy returning to growth in Jul–Dec

MOSCOW, Apr 14 (PRIME) -- The Russian economy may resume growth in July–December, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said at a meeting of the ministry’s expert panel Tuesday.

“Now is the time that we feel difficulties in the real economy. The first quarter will be the weakest from the point of view of economic growth – part of unavoidable adaptation of economic dynamics fell squarely upon this period. But we do not rule out growth resumption from the second half of the year,” Siluanov said.

The ministry has no other option than cutting Reserve Fund spending in 2016 because it will take 3.1 trillion rubles from the 5 trillion ruble safety cushion in 2015, he said.

Siluanov also said that oil prices will remain low for a long period of time.

The ruble weakening and trade limits added over 11 percentage points to annual inflation, which now stands at 16.9%, he said. The government needs to reduce the budget spending despite the consumer prices growth to avoid this short-term outburst of inflation from becoming a permanent trend, he said.

The net private capital outflow from Russia has already started slowing down and will stand at U.S. $15 billion in April–June, and in 2015 it will not exceed $90 billion, Siluanov said.

Siluanov reiterated that the main reason of the economic growth slowdown in Russia is “structural imbalance,” rather than Western sanctions.

(52.4220 rubles – U.S. $1)

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