Last week, Kudrin told a newspaper that he did not rule out Russia resuming borrowing money abroad after 2010 as its trade surplus was expected to narrow to zero by then.
"Our forecasts show that the trade surplus may become zero by 2010, but it can still be positive provided that the global oil price is much higher than $50 per barrel," Kudrin told a conference Tuesday. "Will we have to borrow abroad? We don't need to now, and we plan that we won't need to after 2010, either, as we have an increasing surplus of capital account inflows."
Russia has drawn net private capital inflows of $12 billion so far this year, Kudrin said, including $8 billion in the week of March 17-23. Full-year 2007 net capital inflows are forecast at around $30 billion, rising to $35 billion in 2008, $40 billion in 2009 and $50 billion in 2010.
Kudrin also said Russia was still focusing on domestic borrowing. He added that, according to a three-year budget plan for 2008-2010, Russia will double domestic borrowing by 2010 from the volumes planned in 2007.
A 2007 state domestic borrowing program foresees raising $11.74 billion via issuing state bonds, while the state bond issuances in 2010 are forecast at $25.89 billion.
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