Industrial production in the region in the first nine months of 2010 was only 0,4 percent. Several of the powerful industrial sectors in the region failed to deliver growth, among the oil and gas industry. The region has remained stable, but is still far from overcoming the consequences of the financial crisis.
The Barents Monitoring report is written by the Norwegian Barents Secretariat’s office in Naryan-Mar, Nenets Autonomous Okrug, and covers the first nine months of the year. The report is based on figures from the regional Statistical Service.
Regional industry had positive figures in Q1 and Q3, but had a downturn in Q2, which gave modest 0,4 percent growth in production. The powerful oil industry experienced a three percent decline in production compared with the same period in 2009. Oil production in the period amounted to 9,888 million tons. Production of gas increased by two percent and totaled 2,456 billion cubic meters.
The modest figures for 2010 comes after a troublesome 2009. As reported in previous Barents Monitoring reports, the region in 2009 experienced decline on most economic parameters. Still, industrial production still did better than in most other Northwest Russian regions.
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So far in 2010, coal mining has been the industry with the biggest growth. The coal miners in 2010 extracted 9,825 million tons, which is 20 percent more than in the same period last year. Also the forestry sector experienced growth in parts of the year, but has been unable to avoid a general downturn.
Generation of electric energy decreased by three percent compared to the same period of 2009 and totaled 6712,3 million kWh. Likewise, the agriculture production amounted to only 96 percent of last year’s level.
The construction industry is along with the coal miners the main positive part of the regional economy. The industry had a 115,6 percent growth compared to the same period in 2009, the report informs.
The economical situation in Komi is stable and the region remains one of the industrial locomotives in Northwest Russia. Still, it might be hard for the region to reach its set goals for 2010 as outlined by regional leader Vyacheslav Gaizer in a recent meeting with Russian PM Vladimir Putin. Then, Gaizer said that he believes that regional revenues are likely to return to pre-crisis figures by the end of the year.
Read also: Komi Governor talked forestry with Putin
