Russia's GDP growth in 3Q-4Q 2018 is unlikely to exceed 1.9% — minister

Russia’s Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin doubts that Russia's GDP growth in the third and fourth quarters of 2018 will exceed 1.9%.

"We expect a slowdown in the first quarter of next year, indeed. But we do not expect any big positive surprises in the third and fourth quarters of this year. That is because of higher uncertainty, the growth of volatility on the financial markets... This is not the right background for acceleration of growth," the minister told on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum.

"It is unlikely to be above 1.9%," he added.

According to the minister, the most serious slowdown in the Russian economy is expected in the first quarter of 2019, when the GDP growth may be below 1%, Oreshkin said.

According to the Federal Statistics Service (Rosstat), in the first half of the year, Russia's GDP grew by 1.7% (against the previous estimate of 1.6%), in the second quarter it grew by 1.9% (against the previous estimate of 1.8%).