Russia’s light industry growth declines in 2019 amid falling consumer demand

retail trade

ZARINSK, October 15. /TASS/: The positive dynamics of the development of light industry, which the industry has shown over the past 5 years at a level of at least 5% per year, has been replaced by stagnation in 2019. The reason was the fall in consumer demand and stagnation in retail trade, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of Russia Viktor Evtukhov told reporters on Tuesday.

"This year, our industry (light industry - TASS) is still at the zero point in terms of growth, despite the fact that the previous five years we were growing by at least 5% per year. This, of course, is connected with the fact that our industry generally works mainly for the consumer market. We have a little stagnation in retail trade, the average bill and purchases of durable goods, including clothes, shoes, declined a bit," Evtukhov said.

According to him, by the end of 2019, the index of industrial production in light industry will still be positive, an upward trend was outlined in late summer.