Industrial producer prices in Russia up 1.1% in Feb, meets forecast - Rosstat
MOSCOW. March 16 (Interfax) - Producer prices for industrial goods in Russia increased by 1.1% in February after a decrease of 0.2% in January, Russia's State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said on Friday.
The price increase practically came in line with forecasts from analysts earlier surveyed by Interfax at the end of February. The consensus forecast put the increase for February at 1.2%.
It was earlier reported that producer prices increased 12% in 2011 and 16.7% in 2010. The rate of growth for wholesale prices in industry almost topped consumer inflation by two times. Inflation in 2011 came to 6.1%.
The increase in producer prices for February was driven by a spike in prices in subsoil resource production of 4.5%. The price increase in February for the production of fuel and energy resources was driven largely by price growth for crude oil of 7.4%, natural gas and condensate - by 3.9%. At the same time, prices for the liquefaction and regasification of natural gas for transportation declined by 12.2%.
Prices in the manufacturing sector went unchanged in February on average. At the same time, in the manufacturing sector, prices for chemical production increased. For instance, prices for perfumes and cosmetics goods went up by 8.3% while the price for synthetic rubber increased by 6.6%. At the same time, prices for various petroleum products decreased. For example, the price for furnace fuel went down by 7.1% and car gasoline prices declined 5.8%.
Wholesale prices in February for the production and distribution of electricity, gas and water decreased by 0.3%.
