The New York Times reports that the World Bank has just issued a report trashing Russia's economy as over-reliant on petroluem and lacking any sound fundamental basis.

To quote the Times:

The report . . . reinforced warnings that Russia is relying too heavily on oil exports while allowing its manufacturing sector to wither. The country is the world's second-largest oil producer, after Saudi Arabia.

The report found that the energy sector and consumer sales were strong but industrial output was leveling off, having reached a plateau after a few years of growth fueled by favorable exchange rates that resulted from the Russian economic crisis of 1998.

The bank estimated Russia's gross domestic product grew 6.4 percent in 2005 compared with 7.2 percent a year earlier. Industrial production, however, increased only 4 percent compared with 8.3 percent the previous year.

"The vast majority of manufacturing sectors showed marked slowdowns in economic growth in 2005 relative to 2004," according to the report, the latest in a series released by the bank's Moscow office.

La Russophobe reported on Russia's encroaching recession in industrial production some time ago.