Experts appreciated Putin’s words about approaching inflation to the target 4%

“If we hit a single digit, it will be a big achievement”

Inflation in the country will approach the target level of 4% by the middle of the year. This was stated by President Putin in his message to the Federal Assembly. Experts interviewed by MK believe that such an indicator can be achieved in the coming months, but by the end of the year Russia will reach completely different numbers. Is such a sharp slowdown in prices real, and what will inflation be like this year?

Igor Nikolaev, Chief Researcher at the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences:

“We will be able to reach official inflation of 4-5% in a few months. But then, given the current economic trends, we will seriously go down. 4% inflation won’t make things any easier. The Central Bank quite rightly said that then the situation would worsen again. At the end of the year, 4% will not be. If we hit a single digit, it will be a big achievement.”

Mikhail Belyaev, Candidate of Economic Sciences:

“Inflation is one of the most important macroeconomic indicators. 4% is the benchmark of the Central Bank. We will try by all means to reach these figures by the middle of the year. The main instrument used by the Bank of Russia is the key rate maneuver. What will happen now is hard to say. I think that at the moment there are no grounds for inflation to reach 4-5% by the middle of the year.”

Alexander Balakirev, specialist of the law firm “Intercession”:

“In general, the situation with official inflation indicators is repeated every year – the real indicators of price growth are indeed higher than stated in official sources. This does not mean that the official figure is not true, but it is calculated by banal arithmetic – some goods become much more expensive, while others, on the contrary, become cheaper. The arithmetic mean is taken and the corresponding result is displayed.