A Price War Russia helped to Start Now Has Them Scrambling to Save Their Economy.

Russia’s revenues from oil and gas will be some $40 billion USD lower than planned due to crashing oil prices in a price war they themselves started with Saudi Arabia compounded by global fears surrounding COVID-19.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov - speaking at an expanded meeting of the Board of the Federal Treasury - admitted that the situation in the economy is developing "not in the best way" adding that Russia’s budget will be in deficit this year.

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"This is followed by an increasing number of other sectors: we see that the volume of purchases of expensive consumer goods, including cars, is declining"the head of the Ministry of Finance explained.

"Of course, this will affect the budget" he continued.

In case of budget deficit, Russia will use reserves from the National Wealth Fund (NWF).

In related new, The Russian ruble has fallen to its lowest level in five years. The ruble slipped to 79.8 against the U.S. dollar Wednesday evening in Moscow, putting the currency down more than 25% for the year so far. 

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In the US, West Texas Crude has improved through the day, climbing as high as $24.20 up from a daily low of $23.03.

In Canada, oil continues to drop to new lows, with a struggling looney dropping prices to $8.60.