Russia's year-to-date inflation hits 9.5 per cent

Russia's CPI rose by 0.33% in the week to December 23, bringing year-to-date inflation to 9.5%, according to the latest weekly data released by the Russian State Statistics Service on Wednesday. The release of the data follows the Russian central bank's surprise decision last week to leave its key interest rate unchanged at 21 per cent. The regulator said that the recent tightening had created favourable conditions for bringing inflation down to the 4% target. Andrei Gangan, head of the Bank of Russia's monetary policy department, said Russia's annual inflation rate would be between 9.6 per cent and 9.8 per cent.