Russian industrial growth quickens to 2.8% in May - Rosstat
MOSCOW. June 18 (Interfax) - Russian industrial growth accelerated unexpectedly in May to 2.8% year-on-year, up from 2.4% in April, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said.
Industry grew 1.4% in March and 2.1% in February but fell 0.2% in January.
Analysts told Interfax in a consensus forecast that they expected industrial growth to slow to 1.9% in May.
Industry grew on a seasonally adjusted basis for the fourth month in a row in May, by 0.1% after rising 0.8% in April, 0.2% in March and 0.8% in February.
Industry grew 1.7% year-on-year in January-May. It fell 0.6% year in the same period of 2013, including a contraction of 0.5% in May 2013.
Calendar factors accounted for a portion of the growth: May 2014 had one more working day than May 2013, although the number of working days in February-April 2014 was unchanged from a year earlier.
Growth in May this year was driven by the manufacturing sector, up 4.4% year-on-year, following growth of 3.9% in April and 3.5% in March. Manufacturing grew 3.2% in the 5M.
Extractive industry growth was 0.9% in May, down from 1.1% in April and 0.6% in March. This grew 0.9% in the 5M.
Utilities sector output (electricity, gas and water) fell 0.5% in May, 1.9% in April and 6.6% in March. This fell 2.9% in the 5M.
Gas production grew 0.1% in May (2.9% in January-May) and oil - 1% (1.7%). Coal production was down 9.1% in May and 4.5% in the 5M.
Car production grew 5.9% in May after falling 0.2% in April. Car production fell 1.4% in the 5M.
Pipe production advanced 10.8% in May (2.6% in the 5M). The production of ferrous metal roll increased 2.9% (0.6%). Steel production was up 1.8% in May, but unchanged in the 5M.
Electricity production inched down 0.6% in May (down 2% in the 5M), while heat production declined 1.5% (3.9%).
The Economic Development Industry lowered its forecast for industrial production in 2014 to 1% from 2.2%.
Analysts told Interfax in a consensus forecast at the end of May that they had expected the industry to have 0.3% growth in 2014.