The Ministry of Economic Development has sharply reduced its forecasts for Russia's main macroeconomic indicators for 2013, including GDP, industrial production and investment, Deputy Minister Andrei Klepach said on Thursday.

According to him, GDP growth in 2013 will be 2.4%, which is 1.2% lower than the forecast (3.6%). “Inflation will be 5.8%. Capital outflow is $30-35 billion,” Interfax agency quotes Klepach as saying .

In addition, the Ministry of Economic Development lowered its forecast for investment growth from 6.5% to 4.6%.

The Ministry's forecast for industrial production growth is 2%. And Klepach called this an “optimistic version of the forecast,” which is significantly lower than the previously approved official forecast of 3.6%. .

The agency also lowered its expectations for retail trade turnover in Russia in 2013. This figure, as expected by the ministry, will grow by 4.3%, and not by 5.6%, as previously expected.

When asked what caused the reduction in the GDP forecast, the deputy head of the Ministry of Economic Development replied: “Because export growth is zero, and because investment growth of 4.6% is not high growth.” He said that if we extrapolate GDP growth for 2013 based on current trends, then “in general, we get a growth of 1.7%.”

Statistics for previous years say that in 2012 the Russian economy grew by 3.4%, and in 2011 - by 4.3%.

By the end of the week, the Ministry of Economic Development will submit an updated forecast for 2013 and for 2014-2016 to the Ministry of Finance in order to clarify budget calculations.

The Ministry of Economic Development sharply reduced the forecast for key indicators for 2013