Growth of Russia's defence industry slowed last year

Production of the military-industrial complex (oboronno-promyshennyi kompleks or OPK) increased last year by over 3 %, reaching a record level after growing at 10−15 % a year in the four previous years. Over 80 % of production in OPK was production for defence, about the same share as in 2016. The share rose to this height in the boom of OPK defence production during 2012−2016. Civil production, however, is planned to gradually begin to account for a larger share of OPK after 2020 and rise to around 30 % by 2025.

OPK is part of Russia's manufacturing industries whose production overall remained virtually flat over the past three years. Manufacturing overall rose by just 0.2 % last year. Taking into account the rise of defence production in OPK, civil production in manufacturing industries as a whole has clearly declined. Depending on the way of calculation, OPK employs 15−20 % of Russia's manufacturing workers.

Real growth in production of Russian military-industrial complex and total manufacturing output

Sources: Industry ministry, Federalnyi spravochnik and Rosstat.