Experts predicted a new increase in the key rate of the Central Bank

At a meeting on Friday, the Bank of RUSSIA will once again raise the key rate against the background of inflation exceeding all forecasts, analysts say. But while the question remains

The Board of Directors of the Bank of Russia for the sixth time in a row since March 2021 will raise the key rate in response to increased price growth, analysts polled by RBC predict. The meeting will take place on October 22. RBC's interlocutors are inclined to the option of increasing immediately by 0.5 percentage points. - from 6.75 to 7.25%, although they do not exclude an increase of 0.25 p.p.

According to the BLOOMBERG consensus forecast, economists are divided almost evenly: 20 of them expect a rate hike to 7% and 18 - to 7.25%.

In September, inflation accelerated to 7.4% after 6.7% in August. Food products in September rose in price by 9.2%, non-food - by 8% year-on-year. Tomatoes (+24.9%) and cucumbers (+17.3%) went up strongly, which is not typical for fruit and vegetable prices in September. In October, the situation practically did not change: as of October 11, inflation exceeded 7.6%.

The Bank of Russia raised the key rate for the fifth time in a row Finance

The Bank of Russia expects that inflation will start to slow down in the fourth quarter of 2021, the regulator explained in its message about the previous rate hike in early September. At the same time, the October meeting will be pivotal and the Central Bank will present new medium-term forecasts, including updating the inflation forecast. The current (July) forecast is 5.7–6.2%.