MOSCOW (Reuters) – Annual inflation in Russia slowed further in January, but consumer prices rose in month-on-month terms, data showed on Friday.
Inflation has slowed since accelerating sharply after Russia began what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine on Feb. 24, a move that triggered sweeping Western sanctions and disrupted supply chains.
In January, annual inflation slowed to 11.77% from 11.94% a month earlier, data from the statistics service Rosstat showed. Analysts polled by Reuters expected a slowdown to 11.5%.
The Bank of Russia targets annual inflation at 4%.
Month-on-month, the consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.84% after a 0.78% increase in December. In March, the index jumped 7.61%, the biggest month-on-month increase since January 1999.
The central bank on Friday kept its key rate at 7.5% and its year-end inflation forecast at 5.0-7.0%.
Rosstat gave the following details:
RUSSIAN CPI Jan 23 Dec 22 Jan 22
Mth/mth pct change +0.84 +0.78 +0.99
– food +1.32 +0.60 +1.44
– non-food +0.21 +0.05 +0.67
– services +1.01 +2.04 +0.76
Y/Y pct change +11.77 +11.94 +8.73
Core CPI y/y pct change +13.72 +14.31 +9.24
(Reporting by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Gareth Jones)
