Chris Doss The Russia Journal
IMF does not expect Russia will need loans
WASHINGTON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday it does not believe the recent drop in oil prices will force Russia
to require loans from the IMF or others to help maintain its budget.
"It is our view and assessment at this point that (the decline in oil prices) is not at a state where it would cause us to change our view that the Russian fiscal and external situation over the next couple of years is sustainable without need for recourse to the fund or other points of external support," IMF spokesman Tom Dawson told a regular news briefing.
Russia has faced a fall in revenues recently due to the drop in the price of
oil. On Monday Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said his country could still avoid borrowing from the IMF next year despite that drop in revenues.
Russia depends heavily on revenues from oil exports for its budget needs but
the price of crude has fallen due to a global slowdown in demand.
"We will not need IMF credits, Russia has enough of its own financial instruments which will be used to fulfill the budget," Kudrin was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
Russian government officials have said recently that if oil prices fell very
sharply, the country could borrow from the IMF and get a restructuring of debt repayments from the Paris Club of sovereign lenders.
An IMF mission arrived in Moscow on Monday to check Russia's economic health. Both the fund and the government say their relationship has changed since the 1990s, when Moscow was the biggest borrower and its economy lurched from crisis to crisis. Russia has so far held back from agreeing to new loan program with the fund and even decided to repay some IMF loans early this year.