Russian Manufacturing Growth Slowed in January, HSBC PMI Shows

Russian manufacturing growth slowed for a second month in January as new export orders tumbled at the fastest rate since July, HSBC Holdings Plc said.

The HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 50.8 from 51.6 in December, HSBC said in an e-mailed statement today, citing data compiled by London-based Markit Economics. A level above 50 signals an expansion, while below that shows a contraction.

Russian industrial production slowed more than forecast last month to the lowest level since 2009 after companies scaled back output because of concern Europe’s debt crisis would hurt demand. Manufacturing growth slowed to 6.1 percent last year from 8.3 percent in 2010, the Federal Statistics Service said yesterday.

“While new domestic orders appeared to continue growing moderately, the decline in new export orders intensified,” said Alexander Morozov, chief economist for Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan at HSBC in Moscow, in the statement. “As a lead indicator, the latter points to a rather weak outlook for the sector. Yet ‘weak’ does not mean ‘bad.’”

To contact the reporters on this story: Stephen Bierman in Moscow at sbierman1@bloomberg.net; Scott Rose in Moscow at rrose10@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net