MOSCOW: Russia’s central bank on Monday said that GDP figures show the country is moving out of its protracted recession and returning to tentative growth.
“The evaluation of the Russian GDP shows that the recession is now behind us and ahead is slow economic growth,” the bank said in a note.
The Bank of Russia estimated that growth in the second quarter of 2016 hit 0.2-0.3 percent and said it had boosted its forecasts to 0.4 percent growth in the third quarter and 0.5 percent in the fourth quarter.
Russia has been battered by the longest recession to hit the country during President Vladimir Putin’s more than 16 years at the helm caused by low oil prices and Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.
Officials have previously insisted the recession is slowing and economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev predicted that the economy would shrink by 0.2 percent overall this year after a drop of 3.7 percent in 2015.