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year, the Bank of Russia said in January.
Inflation in the country totalled 3% in annual terms in December 2020
according to Central Bank of Russia (CBR).
“The Bank of Russia forecasts a continuation of annual inflation decline in early 2020, in particular on account of withdrawing the effect of a VAT rate increase at the beginning of 2019 from the estimate,” the regulator says.
Inflation can decelerate to 2.5-2.6% year-on-year by the end of January in Russia, department head of the Central Bank Alexander Morozov told reporters.
The regulator reminded that annual inflation in December 2019 was 3%.
The central bank expects that by the end of 2020, annual inflation will be 3.5-4% “and will remain near 4% in the future.” Earlier, it estimated inflation for 2019 at 3%.
On January 10, the Ministry of Economic Development announced that it expects a further slowdown in inflation to 2.2-2.3% in the first quarter of 2020.
4.2.2 PPI dynamics
Russia’s producer price index of inflation (PPI) was down 4.3% y/y in December. It is worth noting that producer price dynamics to a large extent depend on RUB oil price dynamics, as the share of oil extraction and production of oil-related products (petrochemicals, rubber & plastic) in industrial production is at least 40%.
27 RUSSIA Country Report February 2020 www.intellinews.com
