30 May 2018 17:02

Russian corporate profits up 4.7% in Q1, unchanged in March

MOSCOW. May 30 (Interfax) - Russian enterprises posted 2.531 trillion rubles in combined pretax profits - the balance (profit less losses) of organizations - in January-March 2018, up 4.7% from 2.417 trillion rubles in the same period last year, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said.

Combined profit was virtually unchanged at 791.3 billion rubles in March after falling 11.5% year-on-year in February to 686.9 billion rubles and rising 24% in January to 1.053 trillion rubles.

Some 31,300 Russian enterprises made a combined 3.298 trillion rubles in profit in January-March 2018, while 16,800 others incurred losses totaling 767.2 billion rubles.

Companies working in the extractive sector saw combined profits rise 38.5% year-on-year in January-March 2018 to 841 billion rubles.

The manufacturing sector had 634.7 billion rubles profit, up 2.1% year-on-year.

In wholesale and retail trade, combined profits were down 5.1% to 416.9 billion rubles.

Profits were down 52.7% to 109.2 billion rubles in transport and logistics and down 4.8% to 80.7 billion rubles in communications.

In electricity, gas and water production and transmission, profits were up 18.5% to 274.1 billion rubles.

In agriculture, forestry hunting and fisheries, profit fell 15.1% to 64.8 billion rubles.

Profits in construction came to 0.4 billion rubles.

The share of Russian enterprises that incurred losses grew 0.7 pp in January-March 2018 compared with the same period last year, to 34.9%, according to preliminary data.

Russian enterprises posted 10.321 trillion rubles in combined pretax profits in 2017, 8.5% less than in 2016, when combined pretax profits grew 38%.