Russia: record rise in inflation, Moscow takes measures ahead of legislative elections

A woman fills out her ballot in an early vote for the legislative elections about 2,200 kilometers northeast of Moscow, in the municipal district of Uvatsky, on Thursday, September 9, 2021. AP - Sergei Rusanov

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

Will the Russian Central Bank, which is meeting this Friday, have to give a new turn of the screw on interest rates?

This is a serious hypothesis according to economists: inflation in August broke a new record: plus 6.7%, the highest figure for 5 years.

A figure that worries the Kremlin a few days before the legislative elections.

Advertising

Read more

With our correspondent in Moscow,

Anissa El Jabri

Sugar, oil, flour, tomatoes and even carrots.

For months, the prices of basic products have been soaring: + 8.5% in total for foodstuffs over the past 12 months.

This is the fastest pace for 5 years.

A pace that the central bank is unable to curb and yet in recent months it has continued to increase its rates: 4.25% in the second half of 2020, 6.5% today and probably very soon 7 % say economists. 

Too late for the elections and the problem of purchasing power of the Russians: unsurprisingly each time a pollster asks them what their biggest problem is, they answer: the bill for groceries at the supermarket.

It must be said that at the same time their income is stagnating.

The Kremlin in the run-up to the elections has therefore multiplied the gifts to the heart of its electorate: bonuses to 43 million retirees, to military personnel.

What, say some analysts, still fuel the inflationary spiral.

Legislative elections are scheduled in Russia from September 17-19.

See also: Russia: Vladimir Putin seeks to flatter his electorate in the run-up to legislative elections

Newsletter

Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • Russia

  • Economy