The Bank of Russia conceded that inflation and currency risks will thwart a faster rollback of last year’s emergency interest-rate increase as Governor Elvira Nabiullina steers the economy through its first recession in six years.
While the central bank seized on a letup in inflation and the ruble’s rebound to shave 4.5 percentage points off the benchmark in three steps this year, steeper cuts entail risks, Nabiullina told the International Banking Congress in St. Petersburg on Thursday. It’s “premature to say that all crisis effects have passed,” she said.
