July Industrial Output Growth Accelerates to 11.4%.

Industrial output growth accelerated in July to 11.4% yoy, up from 9.6% in June and 10% in May. 7M06 industrial output was up 4.8% yoy. Alexander Viktorov: The continuing upward trend in steel prices is supporting the growth of metallurgy, the key industry (accounting for 24% of industrial output, not including production of inputs such as iron ore and coke). The growth dynamics of the metallurgy sector have improved dramatically, from a 4.2% yoy fall in January to 18.9% growth in July. Growth rates in machine-building (+17.8% yoy in July) and food processing (9.4%) are also getting stronger. We are putting our industrial output growth forecast of 4.0% under revew for an upgrade.