国际英语新闻：Putin talks on GDP, Agriculture

MOSCOW, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Russia's GDP would return to pre-crisis levels by the first half of 2012, Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said during his live television question session with the citizens on Thursday.

Putin said some experts had said Russia would reach the pre-crisis level by the end of 2012, while some others said it will happen by the end of 2011.

Compared with the sharp drop of 7.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009, this year would witness a 3.8 percent increase of GDP, he added.

Meanwhile, Putin said the industrial output will rise up 8.5 to 8.6 percent this year, after last year's decline of 8 percent.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin speaks during his annual TV marathon question-and-answer session with Russians in Moscow, on December 16, 2010.

In addition, he also talked about the significant drop of agricultural output, saying the output will slump 9.9 percent due to the summer drought.

This year, Russia had harvested about 60.5 million tons of grain compared with 98 million tons in 2009, he added.

The annual national question-and-answer session of Putin with the Russian public is expected to be watched or listened to by people from some 160 countries around the world.