Russia's Monetary Policy in 2017

The Bank of Russia eased at slow enough pace its monetary policy in 2017 despite substantial deceleration in inflation, holding that ongoing inflation risks were high, including a possible decline in crude oil prices and capital outflow, upturn in consumer demand, fiscal policy uncertainty, as well as a relatively high and unstable degree of inflation expectations. In 2017, the monetary policy rate was cut by 2.25 percentage points to 7.75 percent per annum as the inflation rate over the same period (same-month-year-ago comparison) was down 2.6 percentage points to 2.5 percent. The Russian central bank cut the key interest rate six times: by 0.25 percentage points on March 27, by 0.5 percentage points on May 2, by 0.25 percentage points on June 19, by 0.5 percentage points on September 18, by 0.25 percentage points on October 30, and by 0.5 percentage points on December 15