The ministry said in a social and economic development report that high GDP growth rates in the past few months were due to increasing external demand and strengthening internal and consumer demand.
The report also said Russia's industrial output rose 2.9% in July and 4.2% in the first seven months of 2006, compared with 4% in July 2005 and 3.5% in the first seven months of last year.
The ministry said Russia registered a trade surplus of $88.3 billion in the first seven months of 2006. It added that the country's exports totaled $171.9 bln, and imports $83.6 bln.
Inflation in Russia was 0.7% in July, making it 6.9% since January 2006. The figures indicate a 0.2% rise on July 2005, and a 1.6% drop on January-July 2005.
The ministry's monitoring report also said Russia's gold and currency reserves increased by a record 316%, year-on-year, in January-July, or $83.46 billion, and that the increase, which is already 45% higher than in 2005, was due to high prices for exports.
The report said Russia had registered a 10.8% growth in capital investment in the first seven months of 2006, year-on-year, with capital investment in July slowing down to 10.7% from 12.6% in June.
