MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's industrial output rallied in November, posting a 0.2 percent rise following a slump the previous month, the country's economic development minister was quoted as saying Monday.
Elvira Nabiullina said at a meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev that the figure was encouraging on the back of the previous month's 1 percent drop, Russian news agencies reported. The official statistics are released on Tuesday.
Nabiullina told Medvedev that the slight rise was one of a number of signs over the past few months that the economy is getting back on track.
October's drop suggested Russia's recovery from the crisis would be volatile.
Russia is still reeling from the downturn that saw foreign investors flee the country and sent commodities prices -- the backbone of its economy -- into a tailspin. Gross domestic product contracted 8.9 percent in the third quarter from a year ago, but grew by 13.8 percent from the second quarter of 2009.
Nabiullina said November's figure was better than the same month a year ago but did not give the figure. That would mark the first year-on-year growth since the downturn hit last fall.
She reiterated the ministry's forecast of a 11.5 percent decline in industrial output for the year as a whole.
