Growth in Russian industrial output revived in February

Industrial output growth rose to 2.6 % y-o-y in January-February. The figure moved up towards the growth figure for all of 2018. Extractive industries led growth, with production increasing by nearly 5 %, up from an annual growth pace below 3 % over the past three years. Growth of crude oil production was up, while natural gas production increased rapidly for the third consecutive year. As in previous years, the volume of services related to their production grew at such a pace that the services also now had a major impact on extractive sector growth. The weight in terms of the value of these services in extractive sector production figures is slightly larger than the weight of natural gas output.

Having been around 2.5 % y-o-y for the previous three years, manufacturing output growth was under 2 % in January-February. Years of rapid growth in the food industry continued. Growth also strengthened in some of the other large branches such as oil refining and metal industries, while production performance weakened in the chemical industry and in the machinery & equipment category.