Russia’s 2017 GDP to Reach 2%

Russia’s GDP is estimated to reach 2% this year, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at a government meeting Thursday, Tass reported. “As of today we already evidence some potential for investment demand recovery, expansion of machinery, construction and other sectors of the economy. GDP will return to growth—according to Economic Development Ministry’s projections, this growth is estimated at 2%,” he said. The official outlook of Russia’s Economic Development Minister Maksim Oreshkin for this year implies a 0.6% GDP growth. Oreshkin said earlier that he expects a stronger growth for 2017. In the second half of this year, GDP growth will exceed 2%, which means it will be higher than 1% in the first half of 2017, the minister said. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov expects the country’s economic growth to reach 1.1-2% in 2017 instead of the officially forecasted 0.6%. Russia’s GDP contraction amounted to 0.2% in 2016 compared with 2015, according to the state statistics service Rosstat.