Minister: Finance Ministry hopes for further key rate reduction

MOSCOW, Oct 24 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Finance Ministry hopes that the central bank will continue reducing the key interest rate, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said at a forum on Tuesday.

“The central bank’s board of directors decided to cut the rate at the latest meeting. We hope that the trend will last,” he said.

The central bank’s board will meet on Friday.

Siluanov also said that a fast slowdown of inflation poses risks to Russian banks, but is favorable for investment and a higher credit activity.

“Lower inflation poses risks to financial institutions, including banks… That is why we need to pay more attention to effectiveness of operations and management decisions in the financial sector,” he said.

In 2019-2020, Russia’s budget will become as stable as it used to be before the 2008 financial crisis, Siluanov said and added that the government is interested in a higher independence of the budget from oil prices and other external factors.

“One can see in a three-year plan for 2018-2020 that budget’s dependence on gas and oil (prices) is to decline considerably. We are returning to a budget situation before the 2008 crisis that was stable enough with a non-hydrocarbon deficit of 5-6% of GDP… The figures are to be achieved in 2019-2020,” he said.

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