Russia's 2018−20 monetary policy guidelines stress the role of inflation expectations

The Central Bank of Russia reaffirmed its inflation target of "close to 4 %" a year on average. The CBR underlined that for its rate decisions it is important to see lower inflation expectations and their lower volatility. The CBR reminded of the sensitivity of food prices (nearly 40 % of the consumer price basket) to variations in harvests and world market prices as well as government mandates to set rates for services in the housing sector (6 % of the basket). The CBR aims e.g. at broadening the circle of interbank market, lowering the market costs and phasing out its special refinancing credits.