Putin says sees Russian inflation at 11.9–12% in 2015

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Krasnodar Region, Oct 23 (PRIME) -- Inflation in Russia will stand at 11.9–12% in 2015, it is decelerating as the ruble stabilizes, President Vladimir Putin said at the Valdai Discussion Club late Thursday.

“We are seeing inflation decreasing, last month it was 0.5%, as far as I recall. It will be significant by the end of the year, maybe 11.9%, perhaps 12%,” Putin said. “The rate of the national currency includes some market volatility because of oil prices, but none the less, it has stabilized as well.”

The central bank makes confident steps to support the national currency stability, Putin said.

He said that he agrees with those who say that Russia has overcome the peak of the economic crisis. Putin said that oil prices rather than the deterioration of relations with Western countries over Ukraine triggered this crisis.

Both the government and the central bank will still have “reliable” amounts of reserves by the end of 2018, he said. “Yes, we are building a tactics of economic development, so we will ‘eat into’ them (the reserves) a little, but anyway even by the end of 2018 we will have reliable government’s reserves apart from the central bank’s ones.”

Russia has a trade surplus despite any troubles, Putin said.

The president also said that relations with Europe are indispensable for the development of Russia. Moscow also counts on the development of relations with Washington in the future.

Putin said he believes that Russia will be one of the leader countries because of a high level of people’s education and fundamental science.

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