Deripaska: we cannot pray and wait looking at oil prices anymore

President of the Rusal aluminium company Oleg Deripaska does not exclude that the price of oil could fall to $18 a barrel and the ruble exchange rate to fall to 100 rubles per dollar.

According to him, "we cannot pray and wait while looking at current prices, it is not going to get better". "We need to understand that structural overproduction is here for the long run. We can see oil prices of $18 per barrel and survive it, we can survive 100 rubles per dollar too," Deripaska said at the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum.

Deripaska also said he does not believe in the import substitution model and urges to focus on exports. "We need to build a decentralized model based on private property, less prone to the influence of external factors," he stressed.

According to the businessman, "the first objective is to try to revive the internal market, based on domestic demand, i.e. to stabilize the economic situation in order to stop the fall. I do not believe in import substitution as a mantra. Import substitution is a model of the 19th century. We need to develop exports, there are not a lot of resources, but we have them," he believes.

In addition, Deripaska said that Russia should not step back from Europe, relying on demand in Asia. "We should not retreat from Europe. But at the same time, we need to rely on China, on demand in Asia, attract them as partners and create conditions," he concluded.