MOSCOW, March 24. /TASS/. The Central Bank will hopefully continue reducing the key rate, Russian Industry Minister Denis Manturov said on Friday.

"First of all, we appreciate [the reduction] even by 0.25 percentage points. As far as further prospects are concerned, we expect and assume the key rate will continue declining later on," the minister said in a comment on the decision taken by the Bank of Russia on key rate reduction.

The key rate and the ruble rate are influencing on annual performance of the industrial sector, Manturov said.

"If the ruble rate corresponds to the fundamental value and realities and the key rate is lower, then the performance will be higher for the processing sector of the industry and for other branches of the economy," he added.