Russia getting rid of dependence on oil revenue: minister

The Russian economy is getting rid of the unhealthy dependence on oil revenues, with diversion of investment to non-resources sectors to spur growth, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Friday.

According to Siluanov, Russia is starting to recover from the "Dutch Disease", a term used to describe the imbalance between natural resources and manufacturing.

"The investments which previously went to the oil industry now became shrinking and the capital will be invested in non-resources sectors," the minister told a parliamentary meeting.

Siluanov specified that the capital flows have been shifting to agriculture and import-substitution sectors.

"This is absolutely right, we support that trend," he said.

Siluanov added that the government's budget policy would attract foreign investors despite latest downgrading of Russia's credit ratings.

"We see no risks (of attracting investment) this year," Siluanov said, stressing that inflation has been slowing down, so the Central Bank accordingly will further cut the key interest rate, which is currently 14 percent.

The minister also predicted that oil prices would hardly bounce to 70 U.S. dollars per barrel from the current level of 50-53.

He warned that, due to low global oil prices, the federal budget revenues would fall by 20 percent in the second quarter of 2015 compared to the first three months of the year.

The latest data of the Finance Ministry showed that the deficit of Russian federal budget amounted to 7.4 percent of the GDP from January to February. Endi