MOSCOW, July 23 /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s GDP growth is better than expected this year, presidential economic aide Andrei Belousov said on Wednesday.

“Today GDP dynamics are better than we expected at the start of the year. The figures for June were not quite good but as a whole GDP grew by about 1% on an annual basis last month compared with a forecast of 0.5%,” Belousov said.

“That is why, my estimate is that the GDP annual growth will remain at around 1% until the end of the year,” the presidential economic aide said.