Russian GDP will grow 2% in 2013 in best case – PM

(Interfax – GORKI, October 21, 2013) Russia’s gross domestic product will grow 2% this year in the best-case scenario, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told the consulting council for foreign investments in Russia in Gorki on Monday.

“In the eight months of 2013, Russian GDP grew 1.5%, although in 2012 there was four and some percent. The expectation for growth [this year] fluctuates, in the best case, in the neighborhood of 2%,” the prime minister said.

“Industrial growth is virtually at zero,” Medvedev said.

“One of the key factors, of course, is the external economic situation, considering that our economy is of an export-oriented nature,” he said, explaining the reasons for Russia’s economic slowdown.

Other macroeconomic indicators are “generally stable,” Medvedev said. “We have a low unemployment level, an entirely small, if compared other countries’, state debt, a virtually balanced budget, a stable currency, and extremely significant gold and currency reserves,” he said.

“That’s good, but speaking openly, for long-term development, the achievement of a new level of quality of life, this is clearly not enough. [We] need to move forward,” he said.

The current official government forecast for 2013 GDP growth is 1.8%. The Economic Development Ministry cautions that if current economic growth rates persist GDP growth this year could be just 1.5%-1.6%. To reach 1.8% growth this quarter, the ministry calculates, economic expansion has to accelerate to a little over 2.6%.