MOSCOW, August 26. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s food embargo imposed in response to western sanctions will add 1% to inflation this year, the Economic Development Ministry said on Tuesday.
“This will add about 1% this year and some effect will be felt next year,” head of the ministry’s macroeconomic forecast department Oleg Zasov said.
“The food price growth will be mostly registered in the first quarter of next year. This is our estimate and there is big uncertainty about it. We also project an additional 0.5% [in inflation growth] for next year, which may be attributed to this effect,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree in early August to ban for one year the imports of agricultural, raw and food products from the countries that imposed sanctions against Russia over its stance on the developments in neighboring Ukraine.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev later announced that the Russian government had imposed a one-year ban on imports of beef, pork, poultry, fish, cheeses, fruit, vegetables and dairy products from Australia, Canada, the European Union, the United States and Norway.
The Economic Development Ministry has also increased its inflation forecast for 2014 from the target level of 6% to 7-7.5%, Zasov said.