Industrial production increased by 4% in Russia in first 9 months of 2002

The volume of industrial production increased by 4% in the first 9 months of this year, a representative of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry told RBC. The highest rate of growth was reported in the non-ferrous metal industry (8.9%). The corresponding figures for the food industry, the fuel industry, the machine-building and metal-working industries, the chemical industry, the timber industry, the ferrous metal industry, and the textile industry were 8.7%, 6.3%, 3.7%, 3.6%, 2.8%, 1.8%, and 0.3% respectively.

At the same time the production volume decreased by 1.2% in the electrical power industry, and the Economic Development and Trade Ministry expects the production volume to reach 99.6% of last year's level in that industry in 2002. It was also reported that the average rate of capacity use reached 64% in September of this year, exceeding those of July and August of this year by 1%. The maximum rates of capacity use were traditionally reported in the fuel industry (70%) and the non-ferrous metal industry (72%).