Inflation in Russia hit 8.3% in the first quarter of the year, with the effects of the war in Ukraine continuing to be felt in the economy.Inflation in Russia hit 8.3% in the first quarter of the year, with the effects of the war in Ukraine continuing to be felt in the economy.
Russia’s central bank on Friday cut interest rates for the first time since September 2022, in a sign that inflation pressures — not long ago described by President Vladimir Putin as “alarming” — are beginning to ease.
The Bank of Russia took rates down by 100 basis points to 20%. They had been held at 21% since last October, the highest level since the new benchmark rate was introduced in 2013.
The inflation rate in April was 6.2%, it said, down from an average 8.2% across the first quarter of 2025.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has put immense strain on prices, with a weaker ruble pushing up import prices, and on an economy it has had to re-orient through subsequent years of war.
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