Ministry: Russia’s GDP grows 2.5% in October–December 2018

MOSCOW, Feb 12 (PRIME) -- Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 2.5% in October–December 2018, after rising 2.2% in July–September, 2.5% in April–June, and 1.8% in January–March, the Economic Development Ministry said in a report on Tuesday.

The ministry previously expected the GDP to rise by 1.8% in 2018, but in January 2019 it improved the outlook to 2%. The Federal State Statistics Service outperformed the expectations by saying that GDP rose 2.3% last year.

In the report, the ministry said that the speedup of GDP from 1.6% in 2017 to 2.3% in 2018 was largely connected to one-time factors, and that the growth is not consistent. The ministry still expects GDP to increase 1.3% for 2019.

The ministry also said that Russia’s inflation will slow down to 0.5–0.6% in monthly terms in February 2019 from 1% in January, while year-on-year inflation will speed up to 5.2–5.4% from 5%.

If the ruble remains stable throughout the year, annual inflation will pass the peak of 5.5–5.7% in March–May, and fell below 5% closer to the end of the year, the ministry said.

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