Russia raises 2024 GDP growth figure to 4.3%

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian state statistical agency Rosstat raised its estimate of gross domestic product growth for 2024 on Friday to 4.3% from 4.1% earlier.

The revision was due to higher growth in the fourth quarter of 2024, which was now estimated to have been 4.5%, compared with 3.3% estimated previously. It said Russia's GDP equalled 201.2 trillion roubles ($2.41 trillion) in 2024.

The agency said one factor behind the revision was higher growth in the construction industry, the estimate for which was raised by 2.5 percentage points to 4.2%.

Russia's economic growth is fuelled by spending on the three-year-old war in Ukraine and is seen as overheated with the annual inflation rate exceeding 10%.

The central bank hiked its key interest rate to the highest level in over 20 years to cool the economy down and bring inflation down.

Russia's statistics do not specify whether output is for military purposes, but the statistical agency said production of finished metal products had grown by 35% and production of optics and electronics by 29%.

GDP growth fell to 0.8% year-on-year in February from 3% in January, the lowest figure since March 2023. The economy ministry forecast 2025 growth of 2.5%, compared with a central bank prediction of 1-2%.

Russia's annual inflation rate accelerated to 10.34% in March from 10.06% in February, the new data showed. The figure is slightly higher than the 10.2% forecast by economists in a Reuters poll.

($1 = 83.6455 roubles)

(Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya, writing by Gleb Bryanski, Editing by William Maclean and Peter Graff)