Russia's Finance Minister sees economy shrinking 4 percent in 2015

[December 26, 2014]  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Friday that the Russian economy could contract by 4 percent next year and that the budget could have a deficit of more than 3 percent of gross domestic product if oil prices average $60 a barrel.

Siluanov also told journalists that his ministry had recalculated its budget forecasts to take into account oil prices at $60 a barrel and that he expected the ruble's average exchange rate to be around 51 rubles per dollar in 2015.

He added that state bank VTB <VTBR.MM> could get 100 billion rubles ($1.9 billion) from the National Wealth Fund by the end of the year and 150 billion rubles more in 2015, while Gazprombank <GZPRI.RTS> could get 70 billion rubles this or next year.

(Reporting by Dasha Korsunskaya; writing by Alexander Winning and Vladimir Soldatkin)

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