The Central Bank will keep the interest rate at 16 percent annually at its meeting on March 22. This opinion was expressed by Sergei Dubinin, former deputy chairman of the Bank of Russia, in a conversation with socialbites.ca.
According to him, the current inflation trend speaks in favor of such a decision of the regulator.
“The reality is that there are very conflicting signals about what is happening with inflation. If you look at the month, there was an acceleration in inflation in February, then it seemed to slow down. “It seems to me that it is not appropriate to change the rate now,” Dubinin emphasized.
According to Rosstat, inflation in Russia reached 0.68% on a monthly basis in February 2024, after 0.86% in January. The ministry calculated that annual inflation increased to 7.69% in February, from 7.44% at the end of January and 7.42% at the end of December. However, between February 27 and March 4, 2024, the price increase rate in the Russian Federation was 0.09%, while between February 20 and 26, this rate was 0.13%.
The forecast of the former deputy chairman of the Central Bank of socialbites.ca was confirmed by seven banking analysts and economists. According to them, after the Central Bank’s March meeting, deposit rates may start to decrease and loan rates may remain at high levels. More details in our material.
Alexander Abramov, formerly head of the laboratory for analysis of institutions and financial markets at the Institute for Applied Economic Research of the Presidential Academy It has been recommended Russians should hurry up and open deposits.