Government approves Central Bank's program of monetary policy for 2003

The Russian government has approved the program of the single statemonetary policy for 2003, worked out by the Central Bank of Russia, CentralBank Chairman Sergei Ignatyev told reporters today. According to him, thedrafted program is to be submitted to the State Duma before August 26, andthe final version of this program is to be submitted on December 1. Ignatyev pointed out that the main aim of the Central Bank for the nextthree years is to decrease the annual inflation rate below the 8% level. Heunderlined that the inflation rate should not exceed 9-12% in 2003, and themoney supply was to grow by 20-26%. According to Ignatyev, the documentcontains new information, such as a forecast for the main parameters of thebalance of payments and the monetary program. The Central Bank head remarked that this document was worked out takinginto account possible scenarios of development of the global economy.According to him, the main goals of the monetary policy for 2002 "are beingachieved successfully." "We hope that the inflation rate will be within thetarget range and will not surpass 14%," Ignatyev declared. .