Russia’s interest rate shoots up to 15 percent

Russia’s central bank raised the key interest rate by 2 percentage points to 15 percent on Friday amid mounting inflationary pressure.

Recently inflationary pressure has significantly increased beyond the expectations of the central bank, said the Bank of Russia in a statement, adding that inflation is expected to rise even after the rate increase.

The bank also raised its inflation forecast for 2023 to 7-7.5 percent from the previous 6-7 percent, and adjusted the forecast for 2024 to 4-4.5 percent.

The bank said it will further tighten the monetary policy to limit the inflation deviation from the 4 percent target for 2024.

The Bank of Russia raised the key interest rate from 12 to 13 percent in September.