(Reuters) – Russia’s economy will contract by no more than 5% in 2022, presidential adviser Maxim Oreshkin said on Thursday, giving a much more optimistic forecast than the economy ministry.

The ministry said this week it expected gross domestic product (GDP) to contract by 7.8% in 2022. Previously, it had said the economy was on track to contract by more than 12%, in what would be the biggest GDP drop since the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union.

(Reporting by Reuters; editing by John Stonestreet)