UPDATE2: Russian econ minister sees zero GDP growth in Dec 2015

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MOSCOW, Feb 10 (PRIME) -- Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) registered a zero growth on the month in December, seasonally adjusted, the Economic Development Ministry said in a monitoring report Wednesday.

The mineral resource, agriculture and the construction industry boosted output but production in the processing industry, retail and services to households shrank. In 2015, the retail industry was the loss leader with a 10% revenue decrease, the ministry said.

“The preliminary data for 2015 showed that the last year was not the most favorable one for the Russian economy. The country’s GDP had negative dynamics, falling 3.7% as compared with 2014. At the same time, there was a stop in downturn in December, seasonally adjusted,” the ministry said.

Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev earlier estimated a 0.1% GDP contraction in December on the month and a 3.5% downturn on the year.

The ministry said that inflation was 12.9% in 2015. The influence of the ruble devaluation on inflation was 8 percentage points on average.

The ministry also reported that foreign trade surplus fell 23.3% to U.S. $145.6 billion in 2015.

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