Russia’s central bank left its key interest rate unchanged for the first time in a year and a half, holding it at 14% after a meeting of its board of directors.
The bank noted that Russia’s economy is “growing at a moderate pace” in the third quarter of 2026, though price pressure has “increased significantly” in recent months. “Underlying price growth accelerated to an annualized 5–6%, primarily due to the effect of a temporary reduction in production capacity in certain industries. As these effects fade and aggregate demand growth remains restrained, the decline in underlying inflation will resume,” the regulator stated in a press release.
Under its baseline scenario, the central bank expects inflation to run 6.0–7.0% in 2026 and return to 4.0% in 2027 if current policy holds.
The bank had cut the key rate 10 times in a row before this, a cycle that began in June 2025. The last two reductions were 25 basis points apiece: the rate fell from 14.5% to 14.25% in June 2026, then to the current 14% in July.
Days before this, Vladimir Putin, speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum on September 3, said that Russia does not have an “overly tight monetary policy,” adding that flooding the economy with money is dangerous and that the government and the central bank are deliberately suppressing inflation, and that this goal is being achieved.
Earlier in the summer, Putin twice publicly called for the central bank to lower its rate; others made the same demand, including Sberbank CEO German Gref, who spoke of Russia’s economy “overcooling.”
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