MOSCOW, November 26. /TASS/. Russia’s inflation will start to slow down from the second half of 2015 when consumer price growth is curbed by the regulator’s recent monetary policy measures, Russian Central Bank (CBR) chief Elvira Nabiullina said.
Russia’s Central Bank is ready to ease monetary policy from the second half of 2015, she added. “Further on, as we see a steady trend towards slower inflation and lower inflationary expectations, we’ll be ready to relax monetary policy. In our estimates, this will become possible by the second half of 2015,” she said.
CBR raised the key rate four times in 2014, from 5.5% to 9.5% amid soaring inflation and the rapidly depreciating national currency. Consumer prices are likely to stop growing in April-June 2015, she said.
Nabiullina also said that the Сentral Bank has almost completed purge of the banking system. “Purging the banking sector must be done must be done to avoid more serious problems, which is necessary to protect depositors’ interests. Today, we are announcing that a significant part of that work has been done already,” Nabiullina said.
The Central Bank shut 32 in 2013 and 80 in 2014 out of nearly 1,000 banks due to high-risk lending policies or dubious transactions.
The basis for a gradual establishment of the Russian banking system in Crimea has been created, local banks provide all basic services, Nabiullina said. Crimea has fully replaced the hryvnia with the ruble, ahead of the schedule, she said.