Russia's GDP growth in May totalled 7.8 per cent

Russia's GDP growth in May reached 7.8 per cent, the monitoring of Russia's social and economic development placed on the official site of the Russian Ministry for Economic Development and Trade reads.

The GDP growth since the beginning of 2003 has amounted to 7.1 per cent compared with the same period of 2002.

This year the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade forecasts that the 2003 GDP growth will reach 5.4 per cent.

The volume of industrial production in Russia grew in May by 8.5 per cent. The pace of the production growth in the first five months of 2003 amounted to 6.7 per cent.

Investment increase in May equalled 14.7 per cent, while since the beginning of the year it has made 11.8 per cent, the monitoring points out.

The inflation rate in May made up 0.8 per cent against 1.7 per cent last May. Five months' growth of prices is estimated at 7.1 per cent compared with 8.4 per cent in the same period of 2002.