Russia Might Have to Lower 2015 GDP Outlook - EconMin

Russian Economy Minister Aleksei Ulyukayev has said Moscow might have to review its current economic growth forecast after the country's Q2 gross domestic output contracted more than expected.

Data published earlier this week showed Russia's GDP is down 4.6% in April-July compared to the second quarter of last year.

Q1 had registered a more moderate year-on-year drop of 2.2 percent.

Interfax quotes Ulyukayev as telling reporters that there was "serious ground" to consider a downgrade of the economic outlook.

Current estimates suggest the Russian economy will shrink by up to 3% in 2015.

At the end of July he had said that GDP wouldn't contract more than 2.8% by the end of December, and that 2016 will be a year of stabilization.