KHABAROVSK, January 11. /TASS/. Russia’s GDP growth may exceed 4% in 2023, President Vladimir Putin admitted during a meeting with Far Eastern entrepreneurs, adding that its contraction in 2022 turned out lower than expected, reaching 1.2%.

"More than four [percent]? Well, maybe," he replied to Chairman of the Delovaya Rossiya (Business Russia) Association Alexey Repik’s words. "We expected [GDP] contraction by 2.1% in 2022, though it turned out 1.2%," Putin said. "This is why GDP growth will probably be higher [in 2023]," he added.

The president said earlier that GDP growth was expected at 3.5%, adding that Russia managed to recover the losses of 2022.