Russia will be deficit free with oil at $70 per barrel

The Russian economy will run without a deficit only if oil prices stay above the $70 per barrel mark by 2017, Russia’s finance minister said Tuesday. Low crude oil prices and tight economic sanctions imposed in response to Russian policies in eastern Ukraine are pushing the nation’s economy to the brink of recession, prompting economic planners to act to erase the economic decline. “It’s written in the anti-crisis plan that we will conduct a careful budget policy and by 2017 we have the goal of a non-deficit budget with a forecasted price for oil at $70 per barrel,” Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Tuesday.