MOSCOW (Reuters) -The rise in Russia’s weekly consumer prices quickened at the end of March, data from state statistics service Rosstat showed on Wednesday, with authorities still fighting to slow inflation.
Russia’s central bank held the key interest rate at 7.5% last month, maintaining a hawkish stance as a widening budget deficit and labour shortages pose ongoing inflationary risks. The bank said rate hikes were more likely than cuts this year.
On Wednesday, Central Bank Deputy Governor Alexei Zabotkin maintained that hawkish signal, addressing the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament.
“If pro-inflationary risks intensify, the board of directors will assess the advisability of raising rates at upcoming meetings,” news agencies quoted Zabotkin as saying. “But this decision is not predetermined.”
Analysts polled by Reuters in late March expect the bank to keep rates on hold at its next meeting on April 28.
Consumer prices rose 0.13% in the week to April 3, Rosstat said, compared with a 0.05% rise the previous week. Since the start of the year, prices have risen 1.60%, Rosstat said, a slower pace than in the same period of 2022.
Prices for several foodstuffs rose, with fresh cucumbers and lamb among those items with prices escalating well above average. The price of economy class plane tickets rose 1.6%.
In a separate set of data published on Wednesday, Russia’s economy ministry said inflation was running at 3.29% on an annual basis, down from 4.30% a week ago.
Russia began experiencing double-digit inflation soon after it sent its armed forces into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, eliciting sweeping Western sanctions in response.
Russian households regularly cite inflation as their main concern, with many having no savings after a decade of economic crises, and rising prices dragging down living standards.
Russia’s annual inflation rate in 2022 was 11.9%, almost three times the official 4% target. The central bank forecasts inflation will be 5%-7% this year, falling to 4% in 2024.
(Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya and Alexander Marrow; editing by Frank Jack Daniel)
