Russia's industrial output growth slows

Russia’s industrial output growth slows

Russia's industrial output growth slowed both in July 2005 and the January-July 2005 period due to contraction in the manufacturing sector. Russia's Federal State Statistics Service disclosed that the country's industrial output growth fell from 6.9 percent in June to 4.9 percent in July. The processing industry continued to see significant increases in output during July, and growth rates in the production and distribution of electricity, gas and water indicated modest rises. The mineral extraction industry, however, continued to grow at slower rate. The natural resources sector caused overall output growth to cool off from 7.2 percent in the January-July 2004 period to 4.1 percent in January-July 2005. Russia's iron ore production fell 2.7 percent to 54.7 million tons in the first seven months of the year. Coke production experienced a 7.2 percent drop to 18.4 million tons during the same period. On the other end, finished steel production rose 0.9 percent to 31.1 million tons and steel pipe production increased 0.7 percent to 3.7 million tons during the first seven months.