Russian authorities say the country’s gross domestic product grew 5.4 percent in real terms from a year earlier in the first quarter of this year.

The State Statistics Service, or Rosstat, released preliminary GDP data for the January-March period on Friday.

The year-on-year increase marked a fourth consecutive quarter of economic growth.

Some analysts say this reflects the resilience of the Russian economy, which contracted by 1.2 percent in 2022, following the country’s invasion of Ukraine and economic sanctions imposed by Western nations.

In 2023, the Russian economy expanded 3.6 percent annually.

An expert on the Russian economy, Assistant Professor Nicholas Mulder at Cornell University in the US, cited Russia’s defense industry as a possible factor behind the growth.

He said, “Putin recently claimed that as many as 500,000 new workers had been attracted into the industry since the beginning of the war.”

He said, “As they earn more money, this tends to spill over into other sectors of the economy.”

The expert suggested the huge amount of military spending required to fight a war has likely boosted the economy temporarily.

The International Monetary Fund has estimated Russia’s GDP will likely grow 3.2 percent annually this year.