MOSCOW, April 10 The current forecast for Russian economic growth in 2024 is 2.2%, but the Ministry of Economic Development can increase it, First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Andrei Belousov told reporters .
The day before, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said that the Russian economy continues to develop confidently at the beginning of 2024, its growth trend has not changed and it is necessary to maintain this attitude. 
< br />“Currently the forecast is 2.2%. The Ministry of Economic Development says that they may increase the forecast upward. But for now we are talking about tenths (forecast increase — ed). In general, March is good, this can be seen from the dynamics of VAT, which is breaking records, and mainly due to internal VAT. We need to wait for the results of the first quarter. But so far the PMI is quite high, I would say record high, and the value added tax (high — ed). These indicators and quite high consumer activity show that everything It’s going very well,” Belousov said.
According to Rosstat, the Russian economy grew by 3.6% in 2023, and in the third quarter GDP growth was 5.7% in annual terms, and in the fourth — 4.9 %. As for this year, according to the Ministry of Economic Development, GDP in January-February grew by 6% in annual terms, in February alone — by 7.7%.