Russian Economy Expanded 4.3% Last Year, Faster Than Economists Estimated

Russia’s economy grew faster than forecast last year after falling unemployment and record-low inflation helped bolster consumer demand in the fourth quarter.

Gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced, rose 4.3 percent, matching a revised 4.3 percent increase in 2010, the Federal Statistics Service in Moscow said in an e-mailed statement today. The median forecast of 17 economists in a Bloomberg survey was for 4.1 percent.

The world’s biggest energy exporter is recovering from an economic slump of 7.8 percent in 2009, when commodity prices sank after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Inc. Retail-sales growth unexpectedly accelerated to the fastest pace in more than three years last month as the jobless rate fell and inflation reached a two-decade low.

“The figure came in above market consensus because of consistently strong consumer demand and an acceleration in investments toward the end of the year while imports growth decelerated,” Dmitry Polevoy, chief economist for Russia and Kazakhstan at ING Groep in Moscow and one of two economists who predicted the gain, said by e-mail.

The 30-stock Micex Index was 0.8 percent stronger at 1,507.66 at 4:40 p.m. in Moscow and the ruble strengthened 1.2 percent to 30.0706 per dollar.