MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Russian economy may show slight but steady growth in early 2017, and such scenario may attract foreign investors to participate in various projects in the country, former Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Thursday.
"The Russian economy is currently moving out of negative growth rates. We will most likely have minimal, but positive growth rates in the beginning of the next year… [Foreign investors] are traditionally intensifying their attention to Russia during such turning points," Kudrin told the Rossiya-24 television.
The Russian economy suffered a setback in 2014, as the ruble lost about half of its value against the US dollar amid low global oil prices and Western economic sanctions imposed against Russia over the Ukrainian crisis.
Earlier this week, the Russian Economic Development Ministry improved the 2016 GDP decline forecast from 0.6 percent to 0.5 percent in the wake of improvement of oil prices expectations.
