Finance Ministry: No plans to review economic forecasts in light of dollar slide

Alexei Ulyukayev, Russia's first deputy finance minister, announced at a Moscow press conference on Monday that the ministry was not planning to review economic forecasts for this year in light of the change of the dollar to euro exchange rate.

He said that several of instances of the euro gaining strength against the dollar had been witnessed since the start of the year. The first deputy minister stressed that these dynamics were taken into account for long-term economic forecasts, but this year's forecast would remain unchanged.

According to him, the ministry's average annual exchange rate for the ruble against the dollar is 31.4 rubles for one dollar and there are no plans to change this in the light of the dollar's fluctuations.

The Finance Ministry is not intending to correct its plans for paying back and servicing foreign debt this year, despite the situation with the dollar, Ulyukayev said.

"Nothing unexpected for us has happened so far, our forecasts are coming true and no corrections to our plans are needed yet," he said.