Russia’s crude oil export could be increased by 5 million tons this year, Deputy Energy Minister Kirill Molodtsov said Thursday.
“If our calculations are correct, trend of this year would go upward, with a growth of up to 5 million tons,” Molodtsov said.
Russian oil exports rose to 5.26 million barrels a day in January, up 24 percent from December, as the government has tailored the export tax rate and customs duties, Interfax news agency quoted Molodtsov as saying.
He added that current oil price fall and the tax maneuver have cost the Russian oil industry a 15-percent loss.
Russia’s Central Bank chief Elvira Nabiullina said Tuesday that Russia would lose about 160 billion U.S. dollars in oil exports in a year if oil prices were at 45 dollars a barrel.
Earlier on Thursday, a senior official of Russian Finance Ministry estimated that Russia could lose around 46 billion U.S. dollars in budget revenues if oil prices fall to an average of 40 U.S. dollars per barrel in 2015.
Experts from rating agency Fitch recently suggested the oil price would not go up in the near future, and in 2015-2017 would be hovering around 55 U.S. dollars per barrel.
Nevertheless, the European Commission released its winter economic forecast Thursday, predicting the decline of oil prices to an average of 53 U.S. dollars a barrel in 2015, and a rebound to 61.5 in 2016.
Russian Economic Development Ministry on Saturday predicted that Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) will shrink by 3 percent in 2015, given the oil price of 50 U.S. dollars per barrel.
Russian inflation highest in 16 years
Russia’s inflation rate in January hit a 16-year-old high record, statistic agency Rosstat said Thursday.
According to the agency report, inflation rate in January amounted to 3.9 percent, comparing to 2.6 percent in December 2014. The rate was considerably higher than Rosstat’s forecast of 2.7 percent and economists’ consensus outlook of 2.6.
The statistics showed a 6.5-time growth year-on-year, as in January 2014 inflation was only 0.6 percent.
This is the highest pace of inflation in Russia since February 1999, when consumer prices grew by 4.1 percent in one month.
According to Rosstat, consumer prices in Russia rose by 4.4 percent in January 2015, including food prices by 5.7 percent, as the annual growth rates of the two indexes reached 15.9 percent and 20.7 percent respectively.
January’s inflation rate, thereby, contributed to an annual inflation forecast of 15 percent in 2015, the highest rate since September 2008.
The 15-percent forecast has approached the lower end of the peak inflation forecast given by the Economic Development Ministry, which stands at 15 to 17 percent on an annual basis in a time period from March to April in 2015.
Still, Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said Thursday that the ministry has no plan to change its forecast and claimed the annual inflation rate of 2015 remained at 13.7 percent, according to Tass news agency.
