Russia Inflation to Rise in 2018

Inflation in Russia will be about 3% in early 2018 and will reach the target of 4% in the second half of the year, Chairperson of the Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina said on Friday, Tass reported. “According to our estimate, the effect of ruble appreciation on inflation in 2017 is within 1% or slightly less than 1%; the effect of harvest is slightly below 0.5%,” the banker said. “The effects associated with the big harvest of 2017 will gradually be exhausted. In the first half of 2018, this factor will continue to affect the level of annual inflation, it will be completely exhausted only in the third quarter,” she added. “The success of our agriculture played the key role in such a significant reduction in inflation: the annual increase in food products in November was only 1.1%,” she said. Nabiullina noted that in 2019, the economic growth would slow down to 1-1.5%, followed by a return to 1.5-2% in 2020.