Russian industrial output grew 2% in Dec, 2.9% in year
MOSCOW. Jan 23 (Interfax) - Russian industrial output grew 2% year-on-year in December, slowing from 2.4% in November and 3.7% growth in October, the Russian State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said.
The December growth was the lowest in 2018. The previous low was 2.1% in September.
Analysts told Interfax in a consensus forecast at the end of December that they thought industry had grown 2.5% in the month.
Adjusted for seasonal and calendar factors, industry grew 0.1% in December after falling 0.4% in November and growing 0.3% in October.
Industry grew 2.9% in 2018 as a whole and 2.1% in 2017. The 2018 growth was just below the 3% forecast by the Russian Economic Development Ministry and the 3% that the analysts predicted also.
Industrial output grew 2.7% year-on-year in Q4, 2.9% in Q3, 3.2% in Q2 and 2.8% in Q1 2018.
Manufacturing sector output showed zero growth in December and November and grew 2.7% in October. It grew 2.6% in 2018 and 2.5% in 2017.
The extractive industry grew 6.3% year-on-year in December, 7.8% in November and 7.4% in October and 4.1% in the year, after rising 2.1% in 2017.
In the utilities sector, output in distribution of electricity, gas and steam rose 4.5% in December and 2.4% in November but fell 3.2% in October. It grew 1.6% in 2018 after falling 0.4% in 2017.
The analysts said in the consensus forecast, conducted at the end of December, that industry might grow 2% in 2019 as a whole.
The Russian Economic Development Ministry at the end of September forecast industrial output growth in 2019 at 2.4%.