MOSCOW, April 11. /TASS/. Inflation in Russia may be below 4% this year, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Tuesday.

"Inflation is going down. This year we expect inflation at around 4%, or even below that level," he said.

In March 2017, Russia’s Central Bank said the target of 4% inflation might be hit in the third quarter of this year if the average annual oil price is up to $55 per barrel.

Earlier Economic Development Minister Maksim Oreshkin said that the 4% inflation target would be hit not later than in July this year.

Russia’s economic growth will not exceed 1.5% without structural reforms

Russia’s economic growth potential will not exceed 1.5% without structural reforms, Siluanov said.

"The growth potential without structural transformations will not exceed 1.5%," he said.

Russia’s Economic Development Minister Maksim Oreshkin said earlier that as the economy had adjusted to the new environment growth is expected in more sectors in 2017 compared with last year. The official outlook of Russia’s Economic Development Minister for this year implies a 0.6% GDP growth. Oreshkin said earlier that he expects a stronger growth for 2017. In the second half of this year, GDP growth will exceed 2%, which means it will be higher than 1% in the first half of 2017, the Minister said.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov expects the country’s economic growth to reach 1.1-2% in 2017 instead of the officially forecasted 0.6%.

Russia’s GDP contraction amounted to 0.2% in 2016 compared with 2015, according to the state statistics service, Rosstat.