Sberbank expects CBR to keep key rate unchanged at Oct board meeting

MOSCOW. Oct 14 (Interfax) - Sberbank expects the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) to leave its key interest rate unchanged at its board meeting scheduled for October 23, the bank's first deputy CEO, Alexander Vedyakhin said.

"As for the dynamic of the key rate, we believe it is most likely that the regulator will leave the rate unchanged at the next meeting," Vedyakhin told reporters on the sidelines of the Sber business breakfast at Russian Energy Week.

He said the bank was seeing demand for working capital funding and small short-term investment projects, though the bank is still "not setting aside" long-term energy projects.

"We understand that the length of a project is much greater than the cycle of changes to the interest rate, and we are therefore talking about the following - we believe in the downward trend in the key rate, and that means that we are now preparing for lengthy projects which we will launch as soon as the interest rate and key rate [...] decrease," Vedyakhin said.

The CBR's board left the key rate unchanged at 14% at its meeting on September 11 after a series of cuts over the previous ten meetings. The decision on the rate in October will be based on incoming information, CBR deputy governor Alexei Zabotkin said earlier.