Russia Bows to Cheap Oil as Putin Aide Sees $50 Price for Budget
- Russia to switch to one-year budget planning, Putin says
- Russia `comfortable' with oil prices above $60 a barrel
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Russia will assume that crude prices will stay near their present level in calculating next year’s budget as the world’s largest energy exporter adjusts to a downturn on the oil market, according to President Vladimir Putin’s top economic aide.
The budget will be based on an average oil price of $50 a barrel, Andrey Belousov told reporters in Vladivostok on Friday. Putin said he’s asking parliament to support a shift to a one-year fiscal plan in 2016 because it’s “impossible” to predict the direction of global markets.