Russia's Central Bank: key rate requires significant change

The balance of arguments on the movement of the key rate has not changed: the Central Bank of Russia's board of directors will in September assess the advisability of raising it at its upcoming meetings, Russia's Central Bank Deputy Governor Alexei Zabotkin said.

According to him, the board of directors will be assessing the advisability of further key rate increase at upcoming meetings. This means a rate increase at the next meeting is not inevitable, it will depend on incoming data.

The Deputy Governor  stressed that the overall balance of arguments for an increase and for no change has seemingly not changed.

"On the one hand, we have approximately the same dynamics of price growth and some increase in inflation expectations. On the other hand, current data enables us to talk about a certain slowdown in demand and lending growth. We will still receive a lot of new data before September 13," Zabotkin said.