Central Bank of Russia Maintains Refinancing Rate at 8.25%

The Central Bank of Russia held its benchmark refinancing rate steady at 8.25%, and the overnight auction-based repurchase rate at 5.25% and the fixed overnight deposit rate at 3.75%.  The Bank said: "Considering recent domestic and international macroeconomic developments and the effect of the monetary policy measures, implemented in recent months, the Bank of Russia judged that the current level of money market interest rates is appropriate to balance the inflationary risks and the risks of economic growth slowdown in the nearest future"

The Russian central bank previously left interest rates unchanged (but altered the corridor rates), while it last raised the fixed overnight deposit rate by 25bps to 3.50% in May, and the benchmark refinancing rate by 25 basis points to 8.25% in April this year.  Russia reported annual inflation of 7.2% in September, down from 8.2% in August, 9% in July, and 9.4% in June, meanwhile Bank Chairman Sergey Ignatiev is trying to keep inflation between 6% and 7%.  

Russian economic growth was recorded at 5.2% y/y in Q3 this year, compared to 3.4% in Q2, 4.1% in Q1, and 4.5% in the December quarter of 2010; the IMF is expecting 4.5% growth for the full year.  The Russian Ruble (RUB) has gained about 2% against the US dollar this year, while the USDRUB exchange rate last traded around 29.7

www.CentralBankNews.info