Central bank chairwoman says inflation to return to 4% by July

MOSCOW, Mar 4 (PRIME) – The Russian consumer price inflation index will reach the central bank’s target of 4% quarterly by July, Central Bank Chairwoman Elvira Nabiullina told President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

“We assume that quarterly inflation will meet 4% by the middle of the year. The statistic effect of high prices will persist but in general, it will reach the trajectory of 4% by the middle of the year and we hope, we expect and pursue such policies that it would be close to 4% next year,” Nabiullina said.

She said that the banking system has enough profit and capital to finance the economy. Retail crediting grows by 1.3%, corporate crediting by 0.8%.

The central bank hopes that mortgage rates will stabilize and monitors the situation. Nabiullina said that in 2018, mortgage lending soared by almost 50% to about 3 million loans and interest rates were low “but of course, they went up a bit over the last month.”

End