World oil prices raise optimism and concern in Russia - Shatalov

ZURICH, March 14 (Itar-Tass) - The growth of world oil prices raises
not only optimism, but also serious concern in the Russian government,
Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov told Itar-Tass on the sidelines of the Russian Economic and Financial Forum that opened in Switzerland on Sunday.
"On the one hand, the oil price hikes give rise to optimism, because this allows to get additional revenues. On the other hand, this exerts a negative effect on Russia as well, because very many things, including domestic prices, are interlined with the world oil prices," he said. "For instance, the petroleum products prices on the domestic market fully depend on what is going on on the external markets," he said. "Today the government is seriously concerned over the prices and takes, may be, not quite market efforts to influence oil companies and change the situation."
Shatalov made a pessimistic forecast in relation to when Russia's
economy will fully recover to feel no more effects of the global financial and economic crisis.
"We will get out of the crisis not in the near future. Even if we look at the federal budget, it was deficit-free before the crisis, and now it has a high deficit. We will probably reach the pre-crisis level of the GDP by the end of 2011," he said.
Speaking about state spending the deputy minister noted that "it is
slightly reducing as against that in 2009." "But we do not enter the level we had in 2006-2008."