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Russian Central Bank lowers key interest rate by 0.5 percentage points to 11%

The bank said the decision is based on the fact the balance of risks still remains shifted to a significant economic slowdown, despite higher inflation risks

© Artyom Korotayev/TASS

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MOSCOW, July 31. /TASS/. The Russian Central Bank lowered its key interest rate by 0.5 percentage points to 11%, the regulator said Friday.

The bank said the decision is based on the fact the balance of risks still remains shifted to a significant economic slowdown, despite higher inflation risks.

The Central Bank’s decision is in line with the experts’ forecasts. The majority (10 out of 15) analysts questioned by TASS believed that the Central Bank will lower its key rate by up to 0.5 percentage points to 11% per annum. At the same time 5 experts believed that the Central Bank will take a break.

According to the Russian Central Bank, the dynamics of the main macroeconomic indicators signifies further cooling of the economic activity. According to the Bank’s estimations, the decline of Russia’s GDP in the Q2 against the same period last year may be even more significant than in the Q1. "Although factors of the structural nature still restrain the economic growth, the decline in economic output currently, among other things, is of a cyclical pattern," the regulator said, noting that the low level of consumer and business confidence, the decline in use of production capacities and labor.

The next meeting of the Central Bank on monetary policy will be held on September 11.

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Central Bank of Russia Economy

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