The Bank of Russia raised the key rate by 1 percentage point. Now it is 9.5% per annum.

Earlier, economists polled said that the regulator would consider three possible scenarios for raising the rate - by 0.5 percentage points, by 0.75 percentage points. and by 1 p.p. But the last option they called the most likely.

This is the eighth increase in the key rate in a row. The last one was on December 17, 2021, when the Central Bank also increased the rate by 1 p.p. up to 8.5% per annum.

The Bank of Russia previously explained its decisions to tighten monetary policy by the growth of inflationary expectations of the population. The goal of the regulator is to return the inflation rate to the target of 4%.

Annual inflation in 2021 was 8.39%. In January 2022, it reached 8.73%, for the month by December, Rosstat reported. This is the record since January 2016. As for the expectations of the population, the Russians expect inflation at the level of up to 13.7% in the next 12 months, follows from the materials of the Central Bank. Inflationary expectations of citizens in January fell by 1.1 percentage points, but "remained close to multi-year highs," the Central Bank notes.

bbabo.Net