Central Bank president: Inflation in Russia might be 6.7% upon 2015 results

Inflation in Russia upon the results of 2015 might be 6.7% given the current rates of the weekly price growth, Russia’s Central Bank President Elvira Nabiullina told reporters on Thursday.

"We alongside others are looking at the annualised inflation that is the inflation expected during the whole year if each week the inflation remained at the level of the current week [0.1% - eds. TASS]. Now the inflation stands at 6.7%," Nabiullina said adding that In January the inflation climbed to 40% and in March - to 15%.

The Russian statistics agency Rosstat reported that inflation in Russia stood at 0.1% from April 7 to 13, 2015, has amounted to 0.3% since the beginning of April and to 7.8% since the beginning of the year. The annual inflation rates have decreased from 16.9 to 16.8% "In the past week inflation can have been regarded as rather optimistic," Nabiullina said. "We will see how the situation will develop further on."

The Central Bank expected the peak of inflation in the current year’s second quarter. "We expected that the peak would be reached in the first half of the current year but it has not been passed yet," she said adding that the second quarter had not finished yet. Russia’s Central Bank forecast inflation at 12-14%, closer to the lower figure. At the same time, the finance ministry forecast inflation at 11%.

About tools to support currency mortgage holders: Russia’s Central Bank sees no need to introduce additional tools to support currency mortgage holders, Elvira Nabiullina said. "So far I see no need for additional measures," she underlined. According to Nabiullina, support for currency mortgage holders should be more targeted. "We discussed with the government the measures that could be implemented under the targeted support of people who found themselves in a difficult situation, not only foreign currency borrowers but also people who took their mortgages in rubles. Regardless of the currency, it should be the government targeted support," she said. The Central Bank head added that this program should begin working soon.

No plans to increase project financing limit above 100bln roubles: Russia’s Central Bank has no plans to increase the limit within the framework of project financing above 100 billion roubles ($2.012 billion), Russia’s Central Bank told reporters."At the moment, the Central Bank has no plans to increase this limit above 100 billion roubles ($2.012 billion)," Nabiullina said. "The bank has explained not once why: we have loads of specialised tools for small businesses and for support of manufacture exports and we use these tools for refinancing banks at the rate lower than the key one." More privileged refinancing programmes "can retard our actions aimed to lower key rate and to get it back to normal." According to the Central Bank’s president, at the end of the past week not a single project reached the regulator. "When we were making a decision to increase the limit from 50 to 100 billion roubles, we proceed from the data we had received from the interdepartmental working group although not a single project had reached the Central bank yet," she said.

Ruble’s exchange rates were more or less in balance: Russia has not past the peak of inflation this year and the Central Bank of Russia experts predicted it to on the second quarter of the year, CBR President said. She also indicated that the ruble’s exchange rates were more or less in balance at the moment. Also, she said the CBR did not see any need for offering supplementary support instruments to the bank customers who had taken mortgage loans denominated in foreign currencies.