Zee Beam News

MOSCOW, February 1 (RIA Novosti) - According to Andrei Klepach, director of the Russian economic development and trade ministry's department for macroeconomic forecasting, Russia's GDP rose by 7.1% in 2004. This time, he cited the more precise data received by the ministry from the Federal State Statistics Service of Russia (Rosstat) on Tuesday. Previously, he cited the figure of 6.9% adding that "the further improvement of the data may raise this indicator." "Why may it be higher? Because the exports data are underestimated and usually revised upwards," Andrei Klepach continued. "I feel that the last year's indicators must be higher, and this year's indicators - even lower [than the cited figure]", Mr. Klepach noted. Yesterday, Vladimir Sokolin, Rosstat's chief, told journalists that, in his opinion, Russia's GDP rose by 6.5-6.7% in 2004.