Russian Central Bank unlikely to change key rate before year-end - Aksakov

MOSCOW. Nov 28 (Interfax) - The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) is unlikely to cut the key rate during the regulator's board of directors meeting scheduled for mid-December, as there will be the traditional inflationary surge at the end of the year, Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma committee on financial markets, said in a statement.

"I think that the key rate will not change, and it will remain at 7.5% per annum, because we always notice a surge in inflation toward the end of the year that happens even in calm years, because people start buying more and spending more; and sellers respectively start tweaking prices, trying to earn extra money on the New Year hype," Aksakov said during an interview with the Parliamentary Newspaper on Monday.

Aksakov said that in the current conditions, the CBR is unlikely to cut the key rate, though there are also no prerequisites for the rate to increase. "Nothing foreshadows that it would be necessary to hike the key rate, because the situation is stable, prices are rising at a manageable and understandable scale, so the key rate will remain," he said.

The CBR has one board of directors meeting on the key rate scheduled until the end of the year on December 16. The CBR has maintained the key rate at 7.5% p.a. since September 19, having left the rate unchanged at its most recent board meeting on October 28.

The CBR hiked the key rate sharply from 9.5% p.a. to 20% p.a. at the end of February, and the regulator has successively cut the key rate to 17% on April 11, to 14% on May, to 11% on May 27, to 9.5% on June 14, to 8% on July 25, and to 7.5% on September 19.