-Positive signals for Russian economy
The Russian economy, despite struggling with a recession for over two years, is showing signs of improvement.
Further stability in oil prices, which is the country’s main revenue source, and more positive U.S. relations after the election of Donald Trump as the 45th president, shows that the Russian economy has entered an era of recovery.
The Russian ruble has shown its biggest recent gains last week and decreased to 57 levels against the U.S. dollar.
Analysts say that Trump’s statement on having “better” relations with Russia has reduced the global risk perception for the Russian market.
However, Russian Minister for Agriculture Aleksandr Tkachev stated last week that while the recent strengthening of the ruble was not a “disaster,” it was damaging the national economy.
The minister underlined that due to export revenues decreasing due to the ruble’s rise against the dollar, Russia’s industrial and agricultural sectors were being negatively impacted.
International credit rating agency Moody’s made one of the most important announcements for the Russian economy last week.
Moody's changed its outlook on Russia’s sovereign rating to stable from negative, the agency said in a statement.
'Moody's Investors Service ('Moody's') has today changed the outlook on Russia's Ba1 government bond rating to stable from negative. Moody's also affirmed Russia's government bond rating and issuer rating at Ba1,' according to the statement.
Novak evaluates OPEC agreement
Russian Minister of Energy Alexander Novak said that the OPEC agreement on the oil production decrease was one of the most important events of 2016.
Underlining that the agreement can be only effective if all parties adhere 100 percent to their commitments, he said that the Russian budget is to receive an additional 1.5 trillion rubles, thanks to the increase in oil prices that occurred in the aftermath of the agreement.