In August, Russia's manufacturing sector experienced its slowest expansion in just over a year, as indicated by survey data from S&P Global released on Monday.
The manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell to 52.1 in August, down from 53.6 in July. Despite the decline, a PMI above 50 still signifies growth within the sector.
While output, new orders, and employment all continued to rise, the pace of expansion decelerated across these metrics, according to the agency. The overall increase in new orders was primarily driven by improved foreign demand.
Job creation weakened during August, even with a renewed uptick in backlogs of work. This backlog growth was largely due to extended input delivery times and a decline in vendor performance.
On the pricing front, input price inflation moderated to its lowest level since February 2023, reflecting a slowdown in certain raw material costs. Consequently, selling price inflation also eased further.
Looking forward, firms exhibited a reduced level of confidence regarding the year-ahead outlook for output in August.
