ISTANBUL, October 3 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and the World Bank have negotiated the possibility of a $2-4 billion loan in 2010, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Saturday.
Russia started technical talks on the possibility of borrowing from the global financial institution in June, but the sum was not disclosed then.
"We have discussed the possibility of taking a loan of $2 billion to $4 billion," Kudrin said after talks with WB President Robert Zoellick.
The Russian finance minister said the sum could be split into tranches.
"This is our quota for the next year or two," Kudrin said, adding that the potential borrowing from the WB would be a finance loan.
Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin, who attended the talks, told reporters that no principal decision had been made on either the sum, or timeframes or purpose of the loan.
He said the sum would depend on the country's financial demands and the market situation.
"The lower the interest rate is, the more interesting it is to us to borrow from the World Bank," Pankin said.
Russia could take a WB loan at LIBOR+ 0.3%-0.5% now.
Pankin denied that Russia was planning to borrow from other international financial organizations to cover its 2010 budget deficit.
