Railway transport down 36 percent
The Russian Railways confirm that shipping of goods with railway the first three weeks of 2009 is down 36 percent year-on-year. The railway figures might indicate a continued dramatic drop in Russian industrial production, experts say.
Transport Ministry officials confirm to newspaper Kommersant that the shipping of goods over the last three weeks have decreased more than 35 percent compared with the same period in 2008. -The drop comes in the wake of the general downturn in the economy and industry, which inevitably is reflected in the results of railway transport, a ministry spokesman says. The railway company’s prognosis for 2009, made late last year, includes a 19 percent decrease in goods traffic.
