MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th August, 2020) Russia's gross domestic product fell by an estimated 8.5 percent in the second quarter of 2020, which is better than the Economic Development Ministry's forecast of 9.6 percent, Russian statistics watchdog Rosstat said in a statement on Tuesday.
"According to preliminary estimates, the gross domestic product index in the second quarter of 2020 relative to the corresponding period of 2019 amounted to 91.5 percent. The preliminary estimate was carried out by the production method and is based on operational data on the dynamics of production of large and medium-sized enterprises in the non-financial sector of the economy," the statement says.
State support measures made it possible to partially offset the decline in Russia's GDP in the second quarter, and further economic recovery will be gradual, Deputy Economic Development Minister Polina Kryuchkova said.
"Already now we can say that the adaptation of businesses and people to the imposed restrictions, as well as the implemented set of measures to support the economy made it possible to partially compensate for the decline in industries that were under restrictions (such as services, public catering, hotel and tourism)," Kryuchkova said.
Such a deep drop in quarterly GDP was last observed in Russia in 2009, when year-on-year economic decline peaked at 11.2 percent. However, Rosstat changed its methodology in 2012, so any comparison would be irrelevant.
According to the current methodology, the previous year-on-year decline of quarterly GDP was in the first quarter of 2016.
