LONDON, September 5 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian GDP will reach its pre-crisis levels in late 2012, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told journalists after the meeting of G20 finance ministers in London.

"The new forecast gives grounds to say that Russia's GDP will rise to the pre-crisis level by 2012," he said.

Russia was hit hard by the current economic crisis. According to Economics Ministry data, Russia's GDP declined by 9.3% in July 2009 year-on-year and 10.2% in the first seven months of the year.

Kudrin earlier said that the third quarter will mark the end of recession. Russia's GDP was expected to decrease by 8.5% in 2009, but was forecast to grow 1.6% next year, with budget deficit expected to fall to some 7% of GDP.