Free Republic

Inflationary expectations among Russian households for the year ahead stood at 13.4% in November, unchanged from October, while inflationary pressure remained high, the central bank said on Monday. The central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to 21% last month, the highest level in more than 20 years, citing high inflation and elevated inflationary expectations as the main reasons for the move. -snip- The central bank board will convene for the next rate-setting meeting on Dec. 20, with the officials saying that a further tightening of monetary policy was possible.

Russia's central bank hiked its key interest rate by 200 basis points on Friday to 21%, the highest level since the early years of President Vladimir Putin's rule, when Russia was recovering from the chaos that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Most finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the BRICS group of countries did not attend a high-level meeting in Moscow on Friday ahead of a BRICS summit later this month, sending more junior officials instead, official documents showed. Finance ministers from Egypt and the United Arab Emirates and the head of Iran's central bank were present as Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov called for the creation of an alternative to the Western-dominated global financial system. But finance ministers and bank chiefs from China, India and South Africa stayed away, sending deputies or more junior officials instead, a day after...

Russia's central bank hiked its key interest rate by 200 basis points to 18% on Friday as it grapples with high inflation and an overheated economy, bringing the cost of borrowing to its highest in more than two years. -snip- The key rate is now at its highest since April 2022. The Bank of Russia raised rates to 20% in an emergency move soon after the Kremlin sent Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022. "Inflation has accelerated and is developing significantly above the Bank of Russia’s April forecast. Growth in domestic demand is still outstripping the capabilities to expand...