MOSCOW, October 27. /TASS/. The Bank of Russia considers possible that the transition to key rate lowering can take place after the steady inflation decline, Governor of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina said at the press conference after the Board meeting.

"As regards the possible key rate lowering, it will be possible to move to it after we see the steady inflation decline. According to our base case, we see this may occur next year," she said.

"Certainly, if there are deviations from the base case, [if] proinflationary risks materialize, we will address it in the path of the monetary policy. It can be tougher then," Nabiullina stressed.

The regulator makes no predictions when it can shift to monetary policy softening, she noted. "This will depend on inflation data, inflation expectations, and so on.

The Bank of Russia raised the key rate by 2 percentage points to 15% per annum on October 27, having indicated that the current inflation pressure became much stronger.