New Russian budget rule to be based on $40-50/barrel oil price - Interfax
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's finance ministry is proposing a new fiscal rule where the base oil price for budget calculations would be set between $40 (28 pounds) and $50 a barrel, the Interfax news agency reported on Monday citing Deputy Finance Minister Maxim Oreshkin.
"This price approximately corresponds to the long-term average price and over 10-15 years it shouldn't change," Oreshkin said.
"These are the levels which we now think of as certain structural levels over a long-term period."
Above this price oil revenues would be accumulated in Russia's two sovereign wealth funds, with foreign currency to be purchased on the market to replenish the funds.
Oreshkin said the base price would be decided in the autumn, when the government is due to finalise the new rule, which wouldn't be implemented until after 2018.
"The budget rule - this is our long-term anchor for budget policy. This is not 2017 or 2018. This is a more long-term perspective," he said.
Under a previous rule, Russia had based its budget on the average oil price over the previous five years, rising to 10 years by 2018.
This rule was suspended last year as a result of tumbling world oil prices, which resulted in the base oil price greatly exceeding actual oil prices.
(Reporting By Jason Bush; Editing by Lidia Kelly and Toby Chopra)
