UPDATE: Minister: Russia’s GDP growth may top 2% in 2017

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MOSCOW, Oct 24 (PRIME) -- Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth may overshoot 2% in 2017, Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin said at a forum on Tuesday.

“At the beginning of this year I said that GDP would grow by at least 2%, everyone laughed, no one could believe it, they said it is overly optimistic. In fact, we have a 2.5% growth in April-June and a 2.2% rise in July-September. We can reach the 2% and even more by the end of the year,” he said.

Oreshkin also said that he expects Russia to improve its position in the World Bank’s Doing Business rating from the 40th position it had in 2016.

The minister said in an interview with television channel Rossiya 24 that investment in Russia grew over 4% in January-September.

“We expect investment activity to rise, it has been rising -- more than 4% in January-September. All the trends will make (GDP) to advance over 2% in 2018,” he said.

He also said that foreign investors will expand their portfolios of securities of Russian companies.

“We can see cash inflow to both OFZ government bonds… and the stock market. The latest statistics show a strong inflow of new cash. Investors see an upside… we expect the positive trend to remain,” he said.

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