UPDATE: Russia’s GDP down 2.7%, economy at standstill – economic minister

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BOAO, China/MOSCOW, Mar 24 (PRIME) -- Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell 2.7% in January–February, but the current condition of the country’s economy is “near zero”, Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said on Thursday.

“Basically we see that markets are gradually finding a balance not just from the point of view of commodity prices, but also from the point of view of capital movements and conditions of stock markets,” he said at a meeting of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

“We suppose that it will mean an end to the fall. The fall has stopped in the ninth month and the Russian economy may be characterized as…near zero. (GDP) dynamics of some months excluding seasonality stand at plus 0.1% or minus 0.1%. If we add all pluses and minuses…we will get a zero.”

“The same situation is now in industrial production, but in agriculture it is a bit better,” he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich told PRIME that industrial output will rise more confidently starting from March and will register a small increase overall in 2016.

“We used to forecast that positive dynamics will begin by March–April. The fact that it began already in February is a good sign but we must take an extra day into account, this is why we expect more confident dynamics starting from March,” Dvorkovich said.

In February, industrial output rose by 1%, the Federal State Statistics Service said earlier.

Dvorkovich said: “There will be some wobbliness, I cannot say that there will be growth in all the remaining months, this is hardly so because the situation is still tense, in particular, with people’s income. But there can be small positive dynamics overall in the year.”

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