adminMOSCOW. — Russia’s central bank cut its base-case economic forecast for next year to show no growth, assuming sanctions remain in place and oil averages $95 a barrel.
The regulator also pushed back its medium-term inflation target of 4 percent to 2017 from 2016, according to a revised monetary policy plan for 2015-17 released today. The base-case scenario sees sanctions lasting through the end of 2017.
Russia’s decision to increase its key rate this year has helped contain the ruble’s drop against the dollar, which would have been 10 percent greater if no action had been taken, First Deputy Governor Ksenia Yudaeva said in an e-mailed statement.
“Bank of Russia will maintain tight monetary policy only while there are significant risks of rising inflationary expectations amid unfavourable external political and economic trends,” she said.
The ruble has lost more than 28 percent against the dollar so far this year, the second-worst performance among more than 170 currencies tracked by Bloomberg.
Only Ukraine’s hryvnia has had a larger drop. The ruble strengthened 1.6 percent against the dollar to 45.9200 as of 11:11 a.m. in Moscow. — Bloomberg
Online Reporter