Russian growth speeds up

Russia’s economy growth accelerated in the second quarter of 2017 and GDP growth is likely to exceed 2 percent for the entire full year, its Ministry of Economic Development said. “Russian GDP, according to our estimates, grew in the second quarter by approximately 2.7 percent year-on-year. We estimate the economic growth in the first half of the year at 1.6 percent,” Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin was cited by Sputnik news agency as saying. “Based on the encouraging performance of the past quarter, the ministry’s previous two-percent forecast for economic growth this year now seems a little conservative,” Oreshkin said.