Board of Directors of the Bank of Russia on February 14, 2025 decided to maintain a key rate at the level of 21% per annum. This is stated in the regulator’s message.
“The current inflationary pressure remains high. The growth of domestic demand is still significantly ahead of the possibility of expanding the supply of goods and services. At the same time, the cooling of credit activity has become more pronounced, the population’s tendency to save is growing,” it follows from the publication.
The regulator noted that “the Bank of Russia will evaluate the feasibility of raising a key rate at the nearest meeting, taking into account the speed and sustainability of reducing inflation”.
“In the basic scenario to return inflation to the goal, a longer period of maintaining strict monetary conditions in the economy will be required, which was predicted in October,” the message said.
according to the forecast of the Bank of Russia, taking into account the conducted monetary policy, annual inflation will decrease to 7.0-8.0% in 2025, will return to 4.0% in 2026 and will be on targets in the future.
In the base script, the Bank of Russia expects that in the coming months the inflationary pressure will gradually decline “under the influence of cooling lending and high savings activity.”
Earlier, on October 25, 2024, the Bank of Russia increased the key rate by 200 basic points, to the record level – 21% per annum.