Russian economy expands by 1.6pc in Q1

MOSCOW: Russia's economy expanded by 1.6 percent in the first quarter, faster than initially expected, but still at its slowest pace since the final quarter of 2009, preliminary data from the Federal Statistics Service showed on Friday.

Earlier, the Economy Ministry had said that gross domestic product growth was at around 1 percent in the first three months of the year.

The ministry also revised in April its GDP growth forecast for the year to 2.4 percent from 3.6 percent.

Analysts, polled by Reuters, expect the Russian economy to gather pace in the coming quarters, with 2.4 percent growth seen in the second quarter and 2.9 percent in 2013 as a whole.