Russian industry has orders, investment activity growing despite high interest rates - Manturov

TASHKENT. April 22 (Interfax) - Investment activity in the Russian economy is growing, despite the Central Bank's high key interest rate of 16%, and sectors of industry are getting support from government contracts, Deputy Prime Minister and Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov said on Monday.

"The Russian economy is not losing its competitive advantages. Last year, despite external pressure, manufacturing industries in Russia demonstrated 7.5% [growth], and in the first two months of this year added another 10.6%. and if we're talking about the near future, even with the current key rate in Russia, we're seeing a high level of orders, a record PMI level of 55.7% and investment activity from businesses," Manturov said at the plenary session of the Innoprom Central Asia exhibition.

He said investment activity "is also being supported by the government with traditional and new systemic mechanisms, as well as preferential tax regimes."

"But the most important thing, of course, is the strong demand for industry that is being generated by the state and all sectors of the economy, moving in the direction of technological sovereignty," Manturov said.

Manturov said at the beginning of April that his ministry expects the manufacturing sector to grow by more than 5% in 2024 if the dynamic at the start of the year is maintained. "Everything will depend on many factors, including monetary policy, but given the indicators we see for the first two months, I think the result for the year should be at least 5% for the manufacturing sector," he said.

Growth in Russia's manufacturing sector accelerated to 13.5% year-on-year in February from 7.5% in January, the Federal Statistics Service reported.