Page 16 - RPTRusFeb17

widely seen as politically motivated.
Russia's Business Confidence Index in February improved markedly month-on-month for extraction to -1% (-1% in January), and to -2% for manufacturing (from -3% in January), while sliding to -5% for utilities (-2% in January), the Rosstat state statistics bureau said in a data release on February 28. In seasonally adjusted terms, the extraction and manufacturing confidence indicators slipped to 1% and -3% in February, respectively, from 3% and -2% seen in January. After a boost to the confidence indicators in January, the advance slowed in February, although the trend remained positive. Similarly, the latest Manufacturing PMI report for February showed some scaling pack of the positive momentum after a strong start of 2016. The short-term outlook on output also continued to improve at a slower pace. After declining for five consecutive months through December 2016 and jumping by almost 20pp in January, the indicator gained 3pp in February for both extraction and manufacturing. The number of executives optimistic about output growth in the coming three months exceeded the pessimists by 19% in extraction and by 27% in manufacturing.
Russia’s consumer confidence index collapsed to a 2-year low of 63 points in October–December 2016 , according to marketing research company Nielsen, which release the results of a poll conducted in December this week. The fall follows on from slightly better results earlier in the year: in April–June the index stood at 66 points, and in July–September it reached 67 points. The fall in October–December was due to a worsening of consumer perception of the current situation as they went into the holiday season and before Donald Trump was elected president in the US. The poor mood is reflected in consumers' readiness to spend money, as 84% of respondents said that now is not the best time to buy anything -- 11 percentage points more than the figure in October–December 2015, Nielsen said. Also 80% of respondents said they expect the jobs market to be "bad" or "not good" this year.
Just over a quarter (27%) of respondents said their financial situation was "good" or "excellent" versus two thirds (67%) of people who believe their financial situation as "bad." The number of Russians that think the economic crisis will end this year plunged to the two-year minimum of 8%, while 85% of respondents believe that the country’s economy is still in crisis and 75% of people said they cut their spending compared with the previous year.
16 RUSSIA Country Report February 2017 www.intellinews.com