June Industrial Output Up 9.6%.
10 July 2008
Industrial output was up 9.6% yoy, almost even with May’s figure of 10%. First-half industrial output growth came to 3.6% after averaging with the weak results in 4M06 when industrial output growth was just 0.4%. The recovery of metallurgy strengthened (+21.9% yoy in June after 12.4% yoy growth in May), while machine building (+15.7% yoy in June) and food processing (+8.7%) remained strong. Even the chemical sector posted positive growth (+3.8% yoy in June and +3.1% yoy in May after a 3.0% yoy fall in January-April). Alexander Viktorov: The numbers are encouraging and show that many analysts overestimated the impact of increased gas prices. However, we for now maintain our industrial output growth forecast at 4% for 2006.
