Russian manufacturing in 2023 will be 'no worse' than in 2022 or grow 1% - Manturov

MOSCOW. March 16 (Interfax) - The Russian Industry and Trade Ministry forecasts manufacturing industry output in 2023 will be no worse than in 2022, if not 1% higher.

"If we talk about the overall figures for the manufacturing industry, we are planning a result that is no worse, or 1% plus," Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, who is also Industry and Trade Minister, told reporters on the sidelines of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) congress.

The State Statistics Service (Rosstat) has said manufacturing output fell 1.3% in 2022. The Economic Development Ministry's baseline scenario of September 2022 project's a drop of 1.3% for industry as a whole in 2023. Overall industrial output fell 2.4% year-on-year in January 2023 and 4.2% in December 2022, Rosstat has said.

The Econ Ministry has said the slowdown in the decline in January was driven by manufacturing, where seasonally adjusted growth was 0.8% month-on-month; the year-on-year decline halved to 2.3% in January, from 5.7% in December.