Russia: Industrial output grows at quickest pace since December 2010 in April
Industrial output grew 7.2% year-on-year in April (March: +2.3% yoy). April’s print marked the best result since December 2010. April’s notable improvement was largely driven by faster growth in manufacturing output. In addition, mining and quarrying activity improved.
On a monthly basis, industrial output recorded zero growth in seasonally-adjusted terms in April, which was below March’s 1.2% expansion. Meanwhile, the trend improved notably, with the annual average variation of industrial production coming in at minus 2.6%, up from March’s minus 3.5%.
Commenting on the release, Dmitry Dolgin, chief Russia economist at ING, said:
“The April industrial output data creates more positive expectations on the remaining set of economic activity data for April, the release of which has recently been postponed till the next week. On the positive side, higher local activity could create an upside to our still cautious annual GDP forecast of 2.5%. At the same time, it may also reinforce Bank of Russia’s hawkish stance on inflation and key rate at the upcoming meetings.”