UrBC, Moscow, September 13, 2018. Russia’s Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin said the national economy was expected to hit its lowest point in the first quarter of 2019 and to start gradually recovering from then on, Kommersant reports.

‘The dynamics will have to do with the VAT increase, a one-time negative-effect factor. Starting from the second or third quarter of the year, our economic performance indicators will be looking increasingly better,’ Oreshkin said at Eastern Economic Forum.

The minister also said the foreign currency market might also remain particularly volatile throughout the following six to twelve months.

‘The one local problem we can see right now is the volatility that has been brought here from the outside, from the developing economies’ markets, that is. The volatility is also partially related to the sanctions factor. All this plays into the Russian economy’s volatility, so the country’s economic growth won’t be as impressive as we’d like,’ the minister said.