The key factor in the strengthening of the real exchange rate of the ruble in the 2000s was the transformation based growth of Russia’s economy (the Balassa–Samuelson eff ect) coupled with the improving foreign trade conditions. As can be concluded on the basis of data for Q4 2014, for the...

The Bank of Russia on 11 December 2015 decided to keep the base interest rate unchanged at 11%, thus indicating that the bank will not move forward with easing monetary policy. Russia's Central Bank on 14 December resumed 12-month foreign exchange repo auctions with a view to pushing down demand...

Russia's current account surplus was affected considerably by falling exports, whereas imports declined at a slower rate, as compared with the same period previous year. In January–September 2016, net capital outflow in the private sector is reported to be five times less than what it was...

Russia's balance of payments data for Q3 2015 show a considerable decline in her current account balance. In monetary terms, the decline in imports during Q3 was faster than that in exports (relative to Q3 2014). By comparison with Q2 2015, it even demonstrated a slight increase, notwithstanding...

On 30 April 2015, the Bank of Russia reduced the key interest rate from 14% to 12.5% per annum, noting in this connection that the inflation risks had become less pronounced, but that the risks of a more significant cooling of the economy were still there. By all indications, the RF Central Bank...

The key factor in the strengthening of the real exchange rate of the ruble in the 2000s was the transformation based growth of Russia's economy (the Balassa-Samuelson effect) coupled with the improving foreign trade conditions. As can be concluded on the basis of data for Q4 2014, for the...

In June, the Russian Central Bank, for the first time since summer 2015, decided to reduce the key interest rate by 0.5 percentage points, to 10.5%. The decline in inflation expectations, further slowdown in inflation and stabilization of the external environment, together with the...

In Q1 2016, inflation slowed down both month-on-month and year-on-year, driven by further decline in internal demand amid a strengthening rouble, as well as due to the high base effect a year earlier. However, expectations for high inflation are still strong, which will stem decline in price...

The BOP (Balance of Payments) statistics for Q1 2016 show considerable shrinkage of the current account surplus due to a decline in exports while imports saw their decline rate slow down. At the same time, the private sector saw capital outflow decrease strongly. As a result, even though the...

Over the period March 2015 – February 2016, the growth rate of prices declined to 8.1%, while the corresponding index for February 2015 – January 2016 amounted to 9.8%. As demonstrated by the results of a survey published by the Bank of Russia, in February the median inflation expectation...