
Russia’s inflation rate for 2015 will most likely remain unchanged from 2014’s 12 percent, former Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Monday.
“Next year’s inflation [rate] will be between 12 and 15 percent, or could even be lower,” Kudrin said during a press conference.
According to Kudrin’s predictions, Russia’s GDP will drop by 2 percent next year if oil prices hover at $80 per barrel, or by 4 percent should they remain at the current level of approximately $60 per barrel. He said that the economic downturn could continue into 2016.
Amid Western economic sanctions against Moscow introduced over its alleged involvement in the Ukrainian crisis and further affected by the ruble devaluation, the Russian Economic Development Ministry has changed its inflation forecast for 2014 from the initial level of 4.5-5.5 percent to more than 9 percent.
Earlier in December, head of the Russian Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina said she expected the 2014 inflation rate to reach 10 percent and stay at that level in the first quarter of 2015.
The European Commission’s forecast, published on November 4, suggested that it may take until 2016 for the inflation in Russia to fall to 6 percent.