Russian industrial growth quickens to 2.4% in April - Rosstat
MOSCOW. May 20 (Interfax) - Russian industrial growth accelerated unexpectedly in April, to 2.4% year-on-year, from 1.4% in March, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said.
Industry grew 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 0.6% in April.
Industry grew on a seasonally adjusted basis for the third month in a row in April, by 0.8%, after rising 0.2% in March and 0.8% in February.
Industry grew 1.4% year-on-year in January-April. It fell 0.6% year in the same period of 2013, but grew 1.1% in April 2013.
April 2014 had as many working days as April 2013. The same was true of March and February.
Growth in April this year was driven by the manufacturing sector, up 3.9% year-on-year, following growth of 3.5% in March and 3.4% in February. Manufacturing grew 2.8% in the 4M.
Extractive industry growth was 1.1% in April, up from 0.6% in March and 0.8% in February. This grew 0.9% in the 4M.
Utilities sector output (electricity, gas and water) fell 1.9% in April, 6.6% in March and 0.3% in February (3.3% in January-April).