Sberbank expects cbank to raise key rate by 0.25 pp on Friday

MOSCOW, Dec 12 (PRIME) -- Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank expects the central bank to raise the key rate by 0.25 percentage points from the current 7.5% at a meeting of its board of directors on Friday, Nikolai Frolov, director of the center of macroeconomic research at Sberbank, said on Wednesday.

“Our expectation is that an increase in the rate is possible at the coming meeting, maybe, at the next one, by 0.25 percentage points,” Frolov said.

The central bank will barely be able to start neutral monetary policies until 2021, mainly due to growth of value-added tax (VAT), scheduled for January, he said. Sberbank sees the neutral key rate at 6.75%.

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