Russia’s Finance Minister urges caution going forward as oil prices continue to move along the downward path, stripping Russia’s budget of hundreds of millions of dollars.

      According to the news agency TASS, Anton Siluanov warned that oil prices could temporarily drop below 30 dollars a barrel in 2016 while the next year’s budget relies on 50 dollars a barrel.

      “It’s not clear what’s going to happen next,” he was quoted as saying.

      Oil and gas exports account for around 44 percent of fiscal revenues in Russia, which makes its budget and national currency highly dependent on the movement of oil prices.

      Earlier, Russia-IC reported that the Bank of Russia has announced it would keep its benchmark rate unchanged at a policy meeting, citing higher inflation and slowdown risks on Friday, says a press release on the Central Bank’s website.

      On December 16, 2014, in response to a strong depreciation of the rouble, Russia’s Central Bank raised the key rate dramatically from 10.5 percent to 17 percent in a move to limit access to cheap money that could be used to buy up foreign currency.

      Since then, it has slowly brought the rate down to the current level of 11 percent.

      The initial decision has been criticized by many experts and business leaders, with some saying it would stymie private lending, grinding the economy to a halt. But thanks to a paced increase, the regulator was able to avoid such a scenario.

      The rouble strengthened in the following spring but saw a fast depreciation two months later.

      The decline was partially due to clear signals from the Central Bank that it apparently doesn’t want the national currency to appreciate too much.

      In particular, on May 14, 2015, the Bank of Russia announced it would take advantage of the strengthening rouble to bolster its gold and foreign exchange reserves to a comfortable level of $500bn. At that point, the reserves totaled around $356bn.

      The Bank of Russia rejected allegations that its decision to buy foreign currency contradicts its main mandate to target inflation