OREANDA-NEWS  The key rate in Russia will begin to decrease from March 2025. The timing of the start of this process was named by the chairman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation Elvira Nabiullina, quoted by State Duma deputy Maria Prusakova.

At a meeting with the Communist Party faction, the head of the regulator promised that from March monetary policy (PREP) would begin to be gradually eased, the key rate would gradually reach the level of 2023.

"Everyone is thinking why inflation does not stop when the Central Bank's rate rises, and everyone believes that the Central Bank is to blame for this, increasing the rate. But we believe that if we had not raised it, it would have been worse," the deputy quoted Nabiullina as saying.

At the same time, Prusakova herself doubted Nabiullina's assessment, since her previous forecasts had not been realized. She noted that the logic of the regulator reminds her of the fairy tale "The Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors", where the chairman of the Bank of Russia sees the country's economy differently than most of the residents.

The deputy chairman of the Central Bank, Alexey Zabotkin, allowed a new increase in the key rate in December this year. The reason for this remains the steadily high price growth that has been observed over the last couple of months.

"It is difficult to see a significant change in the inflationary dynamics in these conditions," he explained.

Business in the country does not share the Central Bank's approach: representatives of a number of industries warned Kirill Tremasov, adviser to the chairman of the Bank of Russia, that at high rates the economy would slide into recession, investments would stop, and key engineering industries would collapse.

THE BANK OF RUSSIA DENIED THE MESSAGE OF DEPUTY PRUSAKOVA ABOUT THE RATE CUT IN MARCH: NABIULLINA DID NOT NAME A SPECIFIC TIME FRAME FOR CHANGING THE KEY RATE