Central Bank deputy head forecasts inflation

Inflation in Russia is forecasted to reach about 1.1 percent in November 2003 and 1.3 percent in December 2003, Russian Central Bank Deputy Chairman Oleg Vyugin declared today at a meeting in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.

According to him, the Russian Central Bank's forecast of the 2003 inflation is 12 percent. "However, one cannot make an exact forecast," he noted. In 2004, inflation is expected to reach 8 to 10 percent and the 2004 budget envisages a 10-percent growth in prices, Vyugin added.

He also mentioned that the Central Bank had amended a draft of monetary and credit policies in 2004. He specified that considerable changes concerned two variants of the development of the situation in this sphere: low prices of Urals oil ($15 to $16 per barrel) amid an increase in the outflow of capital and high oil prices ($22 per barrel) amid an increase in money inflows.

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