LONDON, September 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russian economy will be on the rise again as early as in the third quarter of 2009, the country's finance minister said.
Russia was hit hard by the current economic crisis. According to Economics Ministry data, Russia's GDP declined by 9.3% in July 2009 year-on-year and 10.2% in the first seven months of the year.
"We still do not have the final data for the second quarter, but we expect Russia's economy to grow in the third quarter compared to the second quarter, and the third quarter will mark the end of recession," Alexei Kudrin told a news conference in London on Friday.
Kudrin attended a meeting of finance ministers comprising the BRIC union - Brazil, Russia, India and China.
The BRIC ministerial meeting was held on the sidelines of a meeting of G20 finance ministers to consider an exit strategy from the ongoing global economic crisis and to take a joint stance on reform plans for the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The Russian finance minister described the meeting as "very important."
"Our countries have similar economies, and Russia suffered more than the other BRIC countries from the global crisis and GDP decrease," Alexei Kudrin said.
He said Russia's GDP was expected to decrease by 8.5% in 2009, but was forecast to grow 1.6% next year, with budget deficit expected to fall to some 7% of GDP.
Kudrin also pledged Russia would maintain and run a large number of anti-crisis measures in 2010.
