Russian antitrust sees no price rise due to anti-Turkish measures

MOSCOW, Jan 14 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service has not registered higher prices at the beginning of the year due to a ban on imports of some food from Turkey, and no growth of prices is expected later due to the measure, Deputy Director Andrei Tsyganov told reporters Thursday.

Russia banned imports of Turkish fruit and vegetables, turkey, chicken and poultry by-products from January 1 among other measures after Ankara downed Russia’s Su-24 bomber in November.

“There were no hikes (of prices),” Tsyganov said. “We think that changes in prices that are happening now are, first, of a seasonal character, and second, connected with a traditional increase of demand ahead of the New Year holidays.”

No further growth of prices after the ban is expected. “I think that the experience of last year showed that there cannot be any senseless incidents as there are no economic grounds for that,” he said.

On Wednesday, the Federal State Statistics Service said Russia’s consumer price inflation (CPI) amounted to 0.3% between January 1 and Monday, compared with 0.8% in the same period of 2014.

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