Russia: Industrial production surges in May

Industrial production soared in May, building on April’s gains. Industrial output rose 5.6% year-on-year in May, which marks a substantial improvement from April’s 2.3% expansion. This marks the best result in four months. May’s improvement partly reflected stronger mining production, which grew at the fastest pace in over a year. In addition, manufacturing output grew notably, while output of electricity power, gas and steam and air conditioning decelerated from the previous month.

The overall trend pointed up, with annual average growth in output rising to 1.5% in May from 1.2%. Looking at a month-on-month comparison, industrial production accelerated from a seasonally-adjusted revised 0.8% expansion in April (previously reported: +1.3% mom) to a 1.6% increase in May.

For this year, our panel of analysts expects industrial production to expand 1.7%, which is unchanged from last month’s forecast. For 2018, the panel expects industrial production to accelerate and increase 2.4%.