He said the country could see its gross domestic product grow by 2.5 to five percent in 2010, "in an optimistic scenario."

VOA: standard.2009.12.25

He notes that is an optimistic figure. Economic figures recently released by the Russian Federal Statistics Service show the GDP declined in the first quarter of this year by 9.5 percent.

VOA: standard.2009.05.25

The Ministry of Health's Lo is optimistic that the new data will show an improvement in the rate.

VOA: standard.2009.11.10