Inflation in Russia may drop below 4 percent by the end of the year, Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin said on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd May, 2019) Inflation in Russia may drop below 4 percent by the end of the year, Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin said on Thursday."Now our team of forecasters does not rule out that at the year-end, inflation may fall even below the level of 4 percent, given an optimistic scenario," Oreshkin said at a ministry meeting.
He noted that inflation was below 5.1 percent as of May 22 and that the situation highlighted the need to stimulate aggregate demand.
In addition, Oreshkin said that Russia's GDP growth slowdown in the first quarter of 2019 was not systemic in nature.
"As for short-term trends, they do not look positive yet. Our growth in the first quarter is the lowest since the end of 2017, [standing] at 0.5 percent. But here, of course, it is obvious that the slowdown is not systemic in nature. Deviation from trends is caused by one-time factors," the minister said.
He further explained that the main reason for such a performance was weak final demand amid simultaneous tightening of fiscal and monetary policies.
"It is obvious that the model of economic growth, which can provide an indicator at the level of 3 percent and above, has not finally been formed," Oreshkin said.
At the same time, the Russian economy has been growing for 12 consecutive quarters, with GDP growth reaching 2.3 percent in 2018, the minister stressed.
According to the Russian Federal State Statistics Service's preliminary data, the country's GDP growth in the first three months of 2019 amounted to 0.5 percent, while the Economic Development Ministry expected it to stand at 0.8 percent.
