Econ minister expects Russian economy to see q-on-q growth at year's end

BAKU. Oct 27 (Interfax) - The situation in the Russian economy has stabilized and it is better than was initially expected, so quarter-on-quarter growth could begin at the end of 2022, Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov said Thursday at the Verona Eurasian Economic Forum in Baku.

"The situation in the economy of the RF has stabilized, the active reconfiguration of foreign economic relations, trade relations is underway, the economy is structurally adapting. According to the figures that we have now, we see that the process is progressing actively and generally even faster than we anticipated," Reshetnikov said.

"The situation with inflation is also stabilizing, which allows the Bank of Russia to lower the key rate. The government debt remains at an extremely low level, which allows us to leave room to maneuver in budget policy," Reshetnikov said.

"Despite the fact that next year we still expect some negative dynamic [in the economy] related to the high base of the first quarter of this year, on a [seasonally adjusted] quarter-on-quarter basis, the economy will already transition to growth at the end of this year," Reshetnikov said.

It was reported earlier that the Economic Development Ministry expects Russian GDP to contract by 2.9% in 2022 and 0.8% in 2023, and then grow by 2.6% annually in 2024-2025.