OREANDA-NEWS  The Bank of Russia on Friday will raise the key rate by 200 basis points to 18% per annum, according to most analysts surveyed by RIA Novosti.

According to experts, the regulator will have space for a rate cut next year – in the first or second quarter.

Since July 2023, in order to combat accelerating inflation, the Central Bank began to raise the key rate - at first only by 1 percentage point, but a month later, in August, the regulator sharply raised the rate at an extraordinary meeting - by 3.5 percentage points against the background of the fall in the ruble exchange rate.

In autumn, the Central Bank added 3 percentage points, and in December - another 1 percentage point, bringing the figure to 16%.

The rate has not changed so far this year. In June, the Bank of Russia kept it at 16% for the fourth time in a row. However, the head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, said that both maintaining the key rate and raising it by 1 and 2 percentage points were considered.

Weekly inflation in Russia in annual terms on July 22 slowed to 9.18% in annual terms from 9.21% on July 15, the Ministry of Economic Development reported. And Russians' inflation expectations for the year ahead rose to 12.4% in July from 11.9% a month earlier, according to a study by inFOM commissioned by the Central Bank.

Central Bank Deputy Chairman Alexei Zabotkin said in early July that the Bank of Russia in July is likely to discuss, among other things, raising the key rate to 17% or 18%.