Russian industry swings to 2.1% growth in Feb - Rosstat
MOSCOW. March 18 (Interfax) - Russian industrial output grew 2.1% year-on-year in February after falling 0.2% in January, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said.
Analysts said in a consensus forecast for Interfax that they thought industry would grow just 0.3% in February.
Industrial output grew 0.8% on a seasonally adjusted basis in February compared with January, after falling 1% in January.
Industry grew 0.9% year-on-year in January-February. It fell 1.8% year-on-year in the same period of last year.
February 2014 and February 2013 had the same number of working days. The relatively high growth in February this year can be attributed to the low base: industry fell a hefty 3.1% in February 2013 and just 0.4% in January 2013.
The manufacturing sector drove the growth in February this year - output here rose 3.4% following zero growth in January. Manufacturing grew 1.8% year-on-year in January-February.
Extractive sector growth was 0.8% in February, following 0.9% growth in January. The sector grew 0.9% in January-February.
The utilities sector fell 0.3% in February, 3.9% in January and 2.2% in January-February.
Gas production grew 1.2% year-on-year in February and 1.2% in January-February, oil production fell 1.3% (rose 0.5%) and coal production rose 0.6% (rose 0.4%).
Car production fell 2.8% year-on-year in February after falling 14.1% in January, and went down 8.2% in January-February.
Power generation fell 0.5% in February and 2.1% in January-February. Heat generation grew 0.9% in February but fell 2.1% in the two months.
Analysts said in the consensus forecast, which was carried out late February, that they thought industrial growth would accelerate to 0.7% in 2014, from 0.4% in 2013. The Russian Economic Development Ministry expects industry to grow 2.2% in 2014.