Russia’s Central Bank plans to revise inflation outlook for 2018 in early June, the bank's First Deputy Chairperson Kseniya Yudaeva said.
She noted that Russia's inflation has stabilized at the level of 2.4%.
"We project that under depletion of the effect of short-term and long-term factors inflation will gradually return back to 4%, and we plan to revise the outlook at the beginning of June," Yudaeva stressed.
The first deputy chairperson also said that the rouble’s depreciation in April had had only a small impact on inflation.
The head of the department of stock markets and financial engineering of the Faculty of Finance and the Banking Business of RANEPA, Konstantin Korischenko, speaking to a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that the country's economy has been perceived now as a low-inflation one. According to the expert, the population does not actually feel the price increase with inflation of 2%.
In addition, according to Korishchenko, low inflation creates conditions for economic growth. However, he added that low inflation has its disadvantages. "The negative side is that today we have to pay high interest rates and a tougher regulation of the banking system for achieving low inflation. And it does not lead to the economic growth," the expert explained.
He also added that the decline in inflation does not happen on its own, this is the result of the policy pursued by the Bank of Russia. "Therefore, in the conditions of inflation, it is possible to maintain a strict policy, bit it is also possible to start pursuing a soft policy with respect to lending, interest rates, but this will depend on the Central Bank's decision," the economist stressed.
The advisor on macroeconomics to the CEO of the 'Opening-Broker' brokerage house, economist Sergey Hestanov, in turn, said that low inflation is favorable for people with a fixed income, such as state employees and pensioners. "Second, low inflation gives predictability, therefore, low enough inflation is good for economy," the expert said.
At the same time, he added that the current low level of inflation is unlikely to last long. "The Central Bank expects that by the end of the year, inflation will accelerate and reach some kind of figure that would be close to the target of 4%. It seems to me that this is very likely. Because Russia in general is not characterized by such long periods of low inflation. In addition, oil prices are now quite high, and if they decline, we will see a weakening of the ruble. And the weakening of the ruble will accelerate inflation," Hestanov pointed out.
