The board of directors of the Bank of Russia has passed a decision to cut the discount rate by a further 0.25 percentage points to 8% per annum from April 30th, 2010. This marks the third reduction in the discount rate since the beginning of the year – it stood at 8.75% in early 2010.
The Central Bank indicated that the decrease in the lending institution’s interest rates was prompted by favourable dynamics of the consumer price index seen in April – the annual inflation amounted to 6.1% as of April 26th, compared to 6.5% in March. The bank’s deci- sion is aimed primarily at bolstering lending activity in the banking sector and, ultimately, improving the availability of loans for the real economy sector.
D.C.