BOFIT Weekly Review 2015/30
Signs that Russian economy’s decline may be stabilising
The on-month contraction in seasonally adjusted industrial output as well as a core part, i.e. manufacturing output, was smaller in June than in earlier months. The drop in output from June 2014, while still large, was also lower than in late spring. On the other hand, the on-year drop figure of June was moderated by the fact that there were more workdays last month than in June 2014.
The slide in manufacturing accelerated in spring. In addition to a cooling of the defence-spending boom, the deepening reflected e.g. the fact that the rate of growth in exports of certain basic commodities decelerated after a very strong start this year.
While other mineral extraction categories have shown growth, a large drop in natural gas output has depressed the overall extraction figure. Crude oil production has continued to climb on a strong increase in exports.
The fall in fixed capital investments eased slightly in June, but remained deep. The latter also concerns construction where earlier high growth in housing construction cooled in May and June.
Key output and demand figures for Russia, % change y-o-y
Source: Rosstat