20 Nov 2009 15:38

Russian GDP shrinks 9.9% in 9 months

MOSCOW. Nov 20 (Interfax) - Russian GDP fell an estimated 9.9% year-on-year in January-September, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said.

Rosstat earlier estimated GDP fell 8.9% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2009. The rate of GDP decline slowed from 10.9% in Q2 2009 and 9.8% in Q1 2009.

GDP grew 7.3% year-on-year in January-September 2008.

The Russian Economic Development Ministry has estimated the economy shrank 10% year-on-year in January-September 2009.

The Econ Ministry says in its official forecast that GDP could fall 8.5% this year as a whole, but is not ruling out a drop of 8%.

Analysts said in a consensus forecast for Interfax at the end of October that they thought a drop of 7.1% was more likely.