"The economy has started growing after a quiet period, and we expect the economy to grow by 6.7-6.8% in 2006," Alexander Zhukov said.
He said the indicator appeared better than expected in the first nine months of the year. "GDP growth was 6.6%, while we forecasted a 6% rate at the start of the year," Zhukov said.
He said the share of fuel and energy products in GDP was declining in comparison with the previous years. "It means that this year's growth rates are mainly based on growing domestic consumer demand," he said.
Zhukov also said inflation would be 9%, in line with the target the government set earlier in the year.
"It will be the first year when inflation will be lower than 10%, and we hope it will be 9%," Zhukov said.
He said inflation was 7.4% this year as of October 16. "We still have some margin."
The government plans to reduce inflation to 4.5-6% in 2008.
