Russian finance ministry sees economic growth near zero for rest of year

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Finance Ministry forecast on Monday that economic growth in the remaining quarters of this year will be close to zero, and could contract in one quarter.

Maxim Oreshkin, director of the ministry's Long-term Planning Department, also said the department expects inflation to reach 7.2-7.3 percent in April and 7.5 percent in June, but fall below 6 percent by year-end.

It expects the country's net capital outflow to reach $70-80 billion in 2014, with the current account surplus rising to more than $50 billion (29 billion pounds), Oreshkin said.

The Russian economy grew 0.8 percent in the first quarter and annual inflation stood at 6.9 percent in March.

(Reporting by Kira Zavyalova, writing by Jason Bush, editing by Nigel Stephenson)