Speaking at the meeting, Mr Kudrin said that the average price of oil in 2009 would not fall below $70 per barrel.

He said that in the medium term, the world prices for oil, raw materials, and food would remain high and this would have a negative effect on the economic development of some CIS countries. The issue will mostly affect the countries with small currency reserves and high budget deficit and foreign debt. As for the oil-producing countries, they will not experience significant difficulties, even though they will need to adapt to a possible decrease in the demand for raw materials, Mr Kudrin said.

Nevertheless, now is the best time to allocate significant resources toward tackling the financial crisis, because even greater resources will be required in the future, Mr Kudrin stressed.  "Eliminating the consequences of the crisis is more costly than taking advance measures at countering it and creating an environment where it is not growing," he said.

He also called on the participants to develop a joint position on reforming the world financial system. "We need to start working on a joint approach to reforming the international financial system and submit our proposals to international financial organisations," Mr Kudrin said. 

He believes that international financial institutions like the IMF, as well as the Basel Committee and international rating agencies proved their inefficiency in anticipating the crisis. In particular, the Basel Committee was developing capital adequacy norms, which was wrong in the run-up to the crisis. According to Mr Kudrin, "more rigorous risk assessment" is required.