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IMF says Russian economy is in strong position

MOSCOW, Dec 12 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund says Russia is in a strong position to cope with lower oil prices and the outlook for structural economic reforms is rosy.

Russia depends heavily on revenues from oil exports for its budget needs, and the price of crude has fallen recently because of a global slowdown in demand.

"It is the mission's assessment that the large external current account and fiscal surpluses, together with the relatively comfortable level of foreign reserves, have placed Russia in a strong position to deal with the less favourable environment," the IMF said in a statement.

The statement, obtained by Reuters on Wednesday, said a recent IMF mission to Russia had focused on "the implications of the recent deterioration in the external environment and the policy options available to the authorities in the case of a further deterioration in the coming year."

The IMF said last week it did not believe the recent drop in oil prices would force Russia to take loans from the Fund or others to help maintain its budget.

Russia, the world's second largest oil exporter, has faced a fall in revenues recently because of the drop in global oil prices. But Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said last week borrowing from the IMF could still be avoided next year, despite the decline in revenues.

Russia announced last week it would cut 150,000 barrels per day in oil exports from the first quarter of next year to show its willingness to help oil cartel OPEC support oil prices. The output cut seems likely to be enough to convince OPEC to make its own promised output reductions.

Russia should benefit if oil prices are kept at current levels, although it is unclear how long this will last, given the global economic slowdown and weaker oil demand. The IMF was upbeat on Russia's economic reform outlook.

"The mission also found that the government's plans and priorities suggest that the impressive momentum that has emerged in the structural reform area in 2001 is likely to be maintained next year."

Both the Fund and the Russian government say their relationship is a far cry from the 1990s, when Moscow was the biggest borrower and its economy lurched from crisis to crisis.

Russia has so far held back from agreeing to a new loan programme with the Fund and even decided to repay some IMF loans earlier this year.

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