Business News

MOSCOW, (APP/AFP) – Russia’s central bank on Friday kept
its key rate unchanged at 11 percent as inflation risks remain high but
said it may cut it in the future as inflation declines.
“Inflation risks remain elevated,” the Bank of Russia said in a
statement, adding its board of directors however saw “the positive
processes of inflation slowdown.”
“Moving forward, should inflation risks fall as much as to ensure
with greater certainty that the Bank of Russia achieves its inflation target, the Bank of Russia will resume a gradual lowering of its key rate
at one of its forthcoming board meetings,” it added.
The bank will hold its next rate review meeting on June 10.
The ruble’s slide at the beginning of this year caused the central
bank to stall on its policy of gradual reductions in the base rate, which
it cut four times last year from a high of 17 percent to the current 11 percent.
The bank went for a mammoth rate hike in December 2014 as it battled
to stave off a collapse in the currency due to a battered economy.
The reduction in the rate since has done little to help Russia’s
recession-hit economy, hurting from the effects of the oil price slump and
Western sanctions over Ukraine.