diff --git a/tests/runtests.pl b/tests/runtests.pl
index 139070eb2d..d018ace52c 100755
--- a/tests/runtests.pl
+++ b/tests/runtests.pl
@@ -168,7 +168,7 @@ my $proxy_address;
 my %custom_skip_reasons;
 
 my $SSHSRVMD5 = "[uninitialized]"; # MD5 of ssh server public key
-my $VERSION;             # curl's reported version number
+my $VERSION="";          # curl's reported version number
 
 my $srcdir = $ENV{'srcdir'} || '.';
 my $CURL="../src/curl".exe_ext('TOOL'); # what curl executable to run on the tests