SERGEI TSUKHLO: “THE INDUSTRY IS THE LEAST CONCERNED ABOUT LOANS, THE WEAK ROUBLE AND EFFICIENCY”

The Kommersant daily has published Rosstat’s data pointing in the industry’s slow recovery. Further, Sergei Tsukhlo, Head of the Business Surveys Department of the Gaidar Institute noted earlier that after the partial mobilization the sector’s labor shortages had become more acute and demand and output had decreased somewhat.

According to Rosstat’s data, in October the industry’s output fell by 2.6% year on year as compared with a slump of 3.1% in September; in January-October 2022 the industry happened to be at the same level as a year before (growth of 0.1%). By estimates, for the first time since the beginning of the year, industrial output in October turned out to be at the same level as in October 2019 (-0.1%).

It is noteworthy that based on the data of the Gaidar Institute (IEP) in August-September the manufacturing got rid of the deficit of inventories of finished products observed over the past two years. “The industry was able to show its intension (though minimal so far) to maintain the controlled surplus of inventories,” Sergei Tsukhlo noted. If in October the economic uncertainty and demand weakened their negative effects on the sector’s outlook, labor and machinery shortages, on the contrary, increased them. “The industry is the least concerned about the availability of loans, the weak rouble and efficiency,” the expert sums it up.