Plunging oil prices no catastrophe for Russia: central bank chief

Oil prices sinking down to 25 dollars per barrel is not catastrophic for Russia, but it may lead to the devaluation of the Russia ruble, the head of the Russian central bank Elvira Nabiullina said on Thursday.

"We have a stressful scenario at the price of 25 dollars per barrel. This is an unlikely scenario, but even it is not disastrous for Russia, although it may lead to the sinking of ruble," she said in an interview with Forbes magazine.

There's a high probability that oil prices in the next two years will fluctuate in the range of 40-50 dollars per barrel, she said.

Regarding inflation, Russia is still plagued with high inflation, ranking 126th among 189 countries surveyed. "There are not many countries with higher inflation," Nabiullina admitted.

"If earlier the basic point for the Russian economy was a stable exchange rate, now it is stable low inflation and interest rates. The advantage of stable low inflation is providing stable low interest rates for business and companies," she added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Russia was ready to freeze oil output at current level and added that the outlook for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to finalize an output cut deal were positive.

OPEC reached a preliminary agreement to curb oil production in September and will meet on Nov. 30 to formalize the deal. However, disagreements persists among producers on details of the plan. Endi