A scramble to mend budgets eroded by oil price

Paris

OIL producing countries are scrambling to fill gaping holes in their budgets torn by crashing petroleum prices, with some turning to international lenders for help and others slashing spending.

Austerity measures, loan negotiations and state asset sales are all on the menu of moves deployed to counter the brutal nosedive in the oil price, with West Texas Intermediate currently below US$30 a barrel and Brent just above - a drop of about 70 per cent since June 2014.

"These are bad times for oil producers and their creditors," Gabriel Sterne, head of global macro research at Oxford Economics, said in a note.

National budgets need to adjust further, financial buffers are inadequate and proper adjustment to the new si…