Low oil prices are not a tragedy for Russia and the country has rid itself of the 'Dutch disease', Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said during an economic forum in Vladimir.
"Now, thank God, the prices for oil today have dropped, I mean to say that thank God this shouldn’t be understood as a tragedy for Russia. And that everything has evened out and that oil prices have leveled out to the real value of the ruble, we have rid ourselves of this ‘Dutch disease’," RIA Novosti cited him as saying.
"We now see that other spheres besides the oil industry may be levelled out and have begun to effectively invest in the development of the so-called trading spheres that were not competitive before, for example, agriculture, chemicals and oil products," the head of the Ministry of Finance said.
The Deputy Director of the Institute of Energy Strategy, Alexey Belogoriev, said in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza that these shocks in oil price changes are, ultimately, good for the economy. "So people are starting to realize that those favorable conditions, which support the raw model of the economy, do not last forever, and you need to prepare and engage in the development of the real sector," the expert believes.
Sberbank CIB analyst Valery Nesterov, in his turn, stressed that oil prices were previously clearly too high, creating greenhouse conditions for oil and gas companies. "Expenses were growing, efficiency has not been getting enough attention, unduly expensive projects were launched. And for nearly a year the oil and gas industry has been living in a different environment, which has mobilized management companies to think carefully about investment policies. Costs have been cut in the right places, more attention has been paid to diversification of the economy. And sanctions, causing some damage, have prompted our management, which is suffering from a certain inertia, to take up the development of production not only in the oil and gas industry, but also in related industries," the expert said.
