Central Bank's board of directors approves draft of monetary policy for 2003

The board of directors of the Russian Central Bank has approved the projecton main directions of the state monetary and credit policy for 2003, theexternal and public relations department of the Central Bank reported.Moreover, it was decided to submit this document to the State Duma onAugust 26, 2002.The draft of this document was submitted to the Russian government onAugust 9, 2002 with the draft of the 2003 federal budget. The governmentapproved the main directions of the state monetary and credit policy for2003. On August 14 after the government's meeting Sergey Ignatyev, head ofthe Central Bank, declared that this document would be improved at ameeting of the Bank's board of directors, taking into account thegovernment's proposals on this draft. The main task of the Central Bank isto decrease the inflation rate to an 8 percent level or lower in the nextthree years. In 2003 the inflation rate is to be from 9 to 12 percent. Themoney supply is expected to advance by 20-26 percent..