Russia’s manufacturing industry contracted in December, halting a two-month recovery as falling oil prices threaten to extend the country’s recession into a second year. The Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 48.7 in December, a reversal from the positive 50.2 and 50.1 readings in October and November, according to a statement released by Markit Economics on Wednesday. The median estimate of six analysts in a Bloomberg survey was 49.5, below the threshold of 50 that separates contraction from growth. The economy of the world’s biggest energy exporter is contracting for the first time in six years amid the drop in oil prices and U.S. and European sanctions over Russia’s role in the Ukrainian conflict. A renewed sell-off in oil after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries effectively abandoned output limits earlier this month is threatening to extend the recession into the longest in two decades, and is challenging President Vladimir […]