HONG KONG, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Monday that he expected oil prices this year to be below the International Energy Agency forecasts of a little more than $40 a barrel.
Kudrin also said Russia expects economic growth in 2009 to be between zero and 2 percent but that the government would do what it could to limit the slowdown.
"We cannot change (the) basic trend, but we can do our best to support the economy," Kudrin said at a conference in Hong Kong. (Reporting by Susan Fenton and Kevin Plumberg; Writing by Eric Burroughs; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)