MOSCOW, May 26. /TASS/. The Russian Finance Ministry forecasts that the price of oil by the end of 2017 may drop to $40 per barrel, according to the explanatory note to the draft amendments to the 2017 Russian budget of 2017 submitted to the State Duma.

"The preservation of commercial reserves of oil and petroleum products in the US at historical highs, as well as increasing production of American shale oil may cause the price of Urals oil to decline to $40 per barrel by the end of this year," the Finance Ministry said.

In general, the forecast for oil prices for 2017 is improved compared to the previous one - up to $45.6 against $40 per barrel due to the positive statistics of the beginning of the year.

Earlier, The Russian government approved amendments to the federal budget for 2017 and for the planned period of 2018-2019.

In particular, according to the amendments prepared by the Finance Ministry, the deficit of the Russian budget for 2017 will be reduced to 2.1% from 3.2% of GDP. It was proposed to increase budget revenues in 2017 to 14.6 trillion rubles ($256.72 mln) from 13.5 trillion rubles ($237.37 mln), and to increase expenses 16.5 trillion rubles ($290.13 mln) from 16.24 trillion rubles ($285.55 mln).