Capital outflow from Russia may hit 50 billion U.S. dollars in 2011, said Deputy Minister of Economic Development Andrei Klepach on Wednesday.

That would be at least 10 billion dollars more than what Klepach's ministry had previously predicted: 30-40 billion dollars. The number was 38.3 billion dollars in 2010.

At a press conference, the official also said it would be difficult to forecast the fluctuation of ruble's exchange rate.

"When all world markets are falling, all energy-depending currencies are going down, we follow," he said.

Russia's ruble has depreciated more than 10 percent against the U.S. dollar since the onset of the European debt crisis. Russia's central bank had to spend about 8 billion dollars to defend the currency in September alone.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet