MOSCOW, October 22. /TASS/. Russia’s Finance Ministry believes that the increase in value-added tax (VAT) by 2 percentage points will not have a fundamental impact on inflation, Minister Anton Siluanov said.

"If we take the period of 2018-2019, when a similar decision was made, a 2-percentage-point change in VAT led to a 0.7% price increase. Therefore, we believe that this will not have a significant impact on inflation," he said.

The VAT increase will enable the Central Bank of Russia to ease its monetary policy, the minister added. "This will be much better for the Central Bank's ability to implement its monetary policy, to ease it, to lower the rate than to finance budget deficit," he said.