Russia GDP growth up 1.9 percent year on year in December 2018 - economy ministry

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian economy expanded by 1.9 percent in December year-on-year after growing by 1.8 percent the previous month, the economy ministry said on Friday.

The ministry increased its estimate for gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2018 to 2 percent from 1.8 percent due to a significant rise in construction activity.

In 2017, GDP growth in Russia was 1.6 percent, according to the most recent estimate from the Russian statistics service.

(Reporting by Polina Nikolskaya and Daria Korsunskaya; Editing by Andrew Osborn)