World Bank: 6% GDP growth rate forecast remains unchanged

The World Bank continues to project that the gross domestic product (GDP) in Russia will grow by approximately 6% in 2003, said the World Bank's Russian representation chief economist Kristof Ruel. He said that the World Bank is satisfied with the growth in the Russian economy in 2003.

Ruel said that according to the bank's estimates in the first half of 2003 the GDP growth rate in Russia was 7.2%. Moreover, only 3.2% of that figure was due to increased oil prices on the world market. 'That means that there is still 4% that is in no way connected with the situation on the world energy market. That is a fairly large number,' said Ruel. In addition, he said that the World Bank for the first time in several years fixed the growth of investment in the Russian economy - not only in the oil industry, but in other sectors as well. 'This is the first time in many years that the Russian economy's dependency on oil production did not increase,' said Ruel.