OREANDA-NEWS. August 23, 2013. Russia’s gross domestic product grew just 1.4 percent in the first half of the current year, compared with 4.5 percent last year, the Rosstat federal statistics service said. The H1 2013 figure basically coincided with the Economic Development Ministry’s estimate, adjusted last week.

Russia's economy grew a mere 1.2 percent in the second quarter of this year, the sixth consecutive quarter of falling growth year-on-year, Rosstat said Friday. Russia’s Central Bank said days earlier that GDP would grow just 2 percent this year.

Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said last week that his ministry expected to neutralize the risk of economic recession by reversing the negative trend in the second half of the year, maintaining the ministry’s GDP growth forecast at 2.4 percent.

Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach told the Prime news agency that the ministry expected Russia’s GDP to show “slightly positive dynamics” in July despite a 0.7 percent industrial production decline in the second summer month.