Industrial Output Growth Up 15.8% yoy In January

According to the State Statistics Committee, industrial output growth surged 15.8% yoy in January, due mostly to last January’s gas cuts which crippled output in 2006. Thus this year metallurgy (+13% yoy), chemicals (+18% yoy) and machine building (+36% yoy) all saw strong growth. Alexander Viktorov: This is a promising start for 2007, this is the highest surge in January growth we have seen since 2004. We expect industrial output to grow by 6.5% in 2007.