MINSK, December 17. /TASS/. The CIS countries have shown significant economic growth despite external pressure, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the Commonwealth Andrey Grozov said.

"The CIS countries, despite the repeated adoption of various packages of sanctions against, primarily, Russia and Belarus and the threat of secondary sanctions against our other CIS partners, have achieved significant progress, economic growth in the Commonwealth. The GDP of the CIS countries has grown by 4.7% this year," he told reporters.

According to Grozov, mutual trade turnover has been steadily developing. Thus, Russia's trade turnover with the CIS countries this year amounted to $83 bln.