The governor of the Bank of Russia said that it held its key policy rate at 21% because monetary conditions had tightened “more significantly than envisaged by the October key rate decision”.

In a statement to the media following the decision on December 20, Elvira Nabiullina said inflation had shown little sign of slowing, although the nature of it was changing. Some of the underlying factors– such as higher food inflation caused by bad weather, and new tariffs imposed by the US on Russia’s