November 04, 2009 16:35 PM

Russia Needs To Diversify Its Economy

WASHINGTON, Nov 4 (Bernama) -- For overcoming crisis Russia needs to reform its economy so that it no longer depends on oil prices, Vice President of the World Bank (WB) Philippe Le Houerou told Russian news agency Itar-Tass in an interview on Wednesday.

"The economy diversification is important for Russia and that the Russian government is engaged in it is good news," he noted adding that "this is one of the main strategies of the future." According to him, "the same is true regarding managing macroeconomic processes."

Houerou expressed confidence that Russia is already beginning to come out of crisis.

"Certainly, in the current world situation it is difficult to make any forecasts, but we believe that Russia has already passed the lowest crisis point and is about to overcome it. Basically, this a trend of the whole world economy," he said.

However, the WB deputy head did not rule out that the economic recovery process might be more difficult that it had earlier been supposed. "We do not expect the economy to be as strong as before the crisis," he said.

-- BERNAMA

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