Russian GDP grew 8% in Nov compared with Oct; decline 9.1% in Jan-Nov
MOSCOW. Dec 16 (Interfax) - Russian GDP rose 8% in November 2009 compared with October, but decline 9.1% in January-November compared with the same period last year, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said in the State Duma on Wednesday.
"We had seasonally adjusted GDP growth in November of 8% compared with October, including 1.5% in industry and 4.7% in the processing sector," Kudrin said.
The GDP decline has slowed since the beginning of the year, he said. "Given that the decline in January-November was 9.1%, we expect the GDP decline for the full year at 8.5%-8.7%, accounting for growth in December," he said.
The Russian economy will grow more than 2% in the fourth quarter of 2009, following growth of 1.1% in the third quarter, Kudrin said.
"The GDP decline in the first six months of the year was 10.4%. In the third quarter we saw a switch to economic expansion, with seasonally adjusted growth amounting to 1.1% based on revised data. We also expect growth in the fourth quarter, with the pace accelerating somewhat, to over 2%. That means we are no longer in recession and have switched from contraction to growth," Kudrin said.
Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach said earlier that GDP declined 3.8% in November year-on-year and 9.1% in January-November, according to Economic Development Ministry data.