“Russian industrial production unexpectedly slowed in December to the weakest pace in eight months, showing the slumping economy failed to pick up momentum last quarter.
Output at factories, mines and utilities rose 1.4 percent from a year earlier, the slowest pace since April, compared with 1.9 percent in November, the Federal Statistics Service in Moscow said today in an e-mailed statement. The median estimate of 17 economists in a Bloombergsurvey was for a 2 percent advance.
Industrial output in the world’s largest energy exporter is stabilizing at weak levels as the economy cools, the central bank said this month. Stagnating output may support the government’s calls for monetary stimulus and cheaper money to boost growth, which was the weakest in the third quarter on an annual basis since the recovery from a recession began in 2010.
“With the important exception of oil, external demand is weak,” Jacob Nell, chief economist for Russia at Morgan Stanley (MS) in Moscow, said by e-mail before the report. “Fears of a return of a second wave of the crisis are keeping domestic consumers and businesses cautious.”
Economic growth slowed to 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter compared with the same period a year earlier from 2.9 percent in July-September, according to the median estimate of 15 economists in a Bloomberg survey. The government should seek to increase growth to a stable 5 percent pace, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told a conference in Moscow last week.
