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Ex-Finance Minister Kudrin predicts oil price around $40-55 per barrel within 1-3 years

Ex-Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin believes the Russian national currency may drop to slightly more than 60 rubles per $1 by the end of this year

MOSCOW, May 29. /TASS/. Oil prices will stabilize at the level between $40 and $55 per barrel within 1-3 years, Head of Russia’s Center for Strategic Research (CSR) and ex-Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin said Monday.

"(Oil) prices will be heading for a new equilibrium level. This has already been happening for the past two years, and will be happening for at least one, two, maybe three years, so we’ll probably see various prices, both 40 (dollars per barrel) and 55 (dollars per barrel)," he said. 

The Russian national currency may drop to slightly more than 60 rubles per $1 by the end of this year if oil prices remain at the current level, he went on. 

"If the (oil) price remains at the current level - $56-57 (per barrel) the ruble will even slightly weaken to more than 60 rubles per dollar by the yearend," he said.

"Unlike developed economies our country has a huge amount of state-owned assets. The resource (funds - TASS) raised from the privatization may be invested in infrastructure, technologies, education. However, it is necessary to make the country more open, to invite foreigners among other things," he said.

"It is necessary to sell minority (state-owned stakes - TASS), though in some cases we will give up controlling stakes as well," he said, adding that the state should withdraw from the industries where there is competition with the private sector.

"(It is reasonable - TASS) to stay only in the area related to the issues of national security, which is why (the state) should withdraw (from companies) in the financial sector, in the oil (sector), it will also eventually happen in the gas (sector) and all other mining assets," he said.