Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Russia’s central bank may cut its main interest rates again after inflation remained unchanged last week, according to UniCredit SpA.

“Resuming disinflation opens doors for further rate cuts by the central bank,” Vladimir Osakovsky, an economist with UniCredit SpA in Moscow, wrote in an e-mailed note today. “We expect cumulative 75 basis points cut by the end of the year.” A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

Russia’s consumer prices were stable last week, the first such weekly reading since Aug. 25, 2008, reaching 8.3 percent in the year through Aug. 24, the Federal Statistics Service said yesterday. Bank Rossii has cut its main interest rates five times since April 24 to spur lending. The refinancing rate was reduced to 10.75 percent on Aug. 7.

The central bank said it lowered the refinancing rate by a “cautious” quarter of a percentage point to avoid triggering faster consumer-price growth after annual inflation accelerated to 12 percent in July, rising for the first time in four months.

The decline in prices for vegetables and fruit led to last week’s zero inflation growth, and the seasonal drop will probably intensify through the rest of August, UniCredit said.

The likelihood of further rate cuts may push the ruble to the weaker boundary of the central bank’s target currency basket, Osakovsky wrote.

The currency will probably slide to 32.8 per dollar and drop to 39.5 against the basket, according to UniCredit.

The currency basket, which is used to manage the ruble to limit swings that hurt Russian exporters, is calculated by multiplying the dollar’s rate to the ruble by 0.55, the euro to ruble rate by 0.45, then adding them together. Bank Rossii pledged on Jan. 22 to defend the basket within the 26 to 41 band.

The ruble lost 0.3 percent to 31.5930 against the dollar at 12:42 p.m. in Moscow and weakened 0.1 percent to 37.6360 versus the basket.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Abelsky in Moscow at pabelsky@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 27, 2009 04:57 EDT