Industrial production in Russia in November 2025 began to decline, reported Rosstat. Overall, the economy’s output volumes decreased by 0.7% in annual terms, and in the manufacturing sector, they fell into the red for the first time since February 2023 – by 1% year-on-year.
Mining increased by 0.7%, but sectors outside the raw materials industry are mired in a deep recession. The decline in food production – the first for the country in 15 years – accelerated fourfold: from 0.2% in October to 0.8% in November. The woodworking industry reduced output by 9.1%, the chemical industry by 1.7%. Clothing output fell by 2.4% over 11 months, and furniture by 7.5%.
Some sectors experienced a full-blown collapse: tractor production plummeted by 61.6%, bulldozer production by 53.7%, elevator production by 37.2%, and passenger car production halved. The auto industry, where production collapsed by 34.1%, slid to its worst values of 2022.
For the first time since the beginning of the war, the Kremlin is faced with a real choice between “guns or butter,” notes economist Elina Rybakova of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington: “The economy as a whole can no longer simultaneously support growth in both the military-industrial complex and the civilian sector” (The Moscow Times).
