Russia’s productive capacity investment seen at -5.7% in December

Russia's fixed asset investment performance has likely eased as oil prices deteriorated over past couple of months. The average capacity utilisation across the mining and manufacturing industries dropped at 62.5%, with relative cyclical peak seen at 66% during mid-2015, it has moderately gained to 63.3% in November, suggesting an improving investment outlook in selected non-oil industries.

Increasing fiscal consolidation and rising tax burden on oil companies might intensify the contraction in investments. Signs of budgetary pressure on capital spending witnessed in December are expected to weigh on investment-led recovery, which will further lead to disinvestment.

"We expect productive capacity investment at -5.7% in December versus -4.9% in November" - Nordea Markets