Industrial production down
Industrial production in Russia fell 3,4% in 2015 – for the first time since the crisis of 2009.
The annual industrial production fell 3,4%in 2015 compared to 2014, RBK writes, citing data from Russia´s statistic service Rosstat. Russia has had an increased industrial production for the five last years. In 2014, it was up 1,7%.
Industrial production went down all months except January, and was down 4,5% in the month of December.
Production went most down in the manufacturing sector. The annual volume of production fell 5,4% - in December alone it plunged 6,1%.
Enterprises specializing in mining managed to increase production in 2015, but the increase was more modest then in the previous years – 0,3% in 2015 compared to 1,4% in 2014 and 1,1% in 2013. Coal production increased 4,5%.
Russia in August 2014 introduced an import ban on a long list of foodstuffs from the US, EU, Norway and some other countries in an answer to Western sanctions following Russia´s annexation of Crimea. This embargo has led to a blooming in domestic food production. Production of cheese has gone up 17,1%, meat 13%, and chicken 9,6%.
Russia´s Ministry of Economic Development links the decline in production to the falling real incomes of Russian, which has led to a fall in consumer demand. Russians´real incomes plunged 9,5% in 2015, three times faster than during the crisis of 2009, RBK reports.
