SOCHI, October 6. /TASS/. Inflation in Russia is declining and can be less than 8% by the end of the year, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told reporters on the sidelines of the Valdai Discussion Club.

"As regards inflation at present relatively to the peak level that we saw in July, to recap, it was 9.2% year on year, inflation is slowing down now. We see as of the end of October that the inflation level totaled 8.5% and we expect the decline to 8% and probably even slightly less than 8% by the end of the year. We will look at developments of the situation in two coming months, November-December, including with consideration of the tough monetary policy of the Central Bank and the slowdown in consumer lending and in the commercial sector [lending] accordingly," the official noted.

Despite all the challenges, the Russian economy is growing sustainably and its growth rate was above the world average last year, Novak said. "We also see that economic growth is 4% in nine months of this year; it is even higher than in the last year. We expect about 3.9% by the end of the year, considering a certain slowdown of the growth rate in the fourth quarter and at the end of the third quarter.