About the fight against inflation, V. Putin spoke while discussing the decline in investments. According to him, this was primarily caused by the “consciously implemented policy of the regulator – the Central Bank – and the Government of the Russian Federation.”
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“The goal is to curb inflation. We could not allow any hyperinflation – such a threat existed. Now the annual inflation rate is 6.3%, [meaning] the goal is being achieved,” said the Kremlin leader, quoted by the portal “Agentstvo.”
V. Putin added that “both the government and the Central Bank have so far essentially managed to navigate between Scylla and Charybdis, and this will lead to the expected effects we talked about at the very beginning, when we started this process a year and a half or two years ago.”
Later, responding to another question, V. Putin stated that “we understand what the increase in the base interest rate is related to, we understand how the entire economy operates under such conditions.”
“We have to solve this task – macroeconomic stability. As I have already said, inflation was double-digit here. And what kind of investment projects can we talk about if inflation is expressed in double digits? No, that is impossible. Yes, the base interest rate increased in the first stage, [but now] it is decreasing,” said V. Putin.
What Putin said earlier
The last time V. Putin openly supported the Central Bank was last December during the “Direct Line.” At that time, he called the slowdown of the Russian economy a “conscious action” taken by the government, the Central Bank, and the entire country’s leadership to reduce inflation, and stated that the task set was “essentially being solved.”
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After that, V. Putin at least twice implied that he expects a softer Central Bank policy regarding the base interest rate, recalls “Agentstvo.” On June 10, he stated that the decrease in inflation allows “expecting a reduction in the base interest rate.” And on July 14, the Russian leader called further rate cuts a “natural process.”
How propagandists criticized the Central Bank
In the show “Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov,” the Russian Central Bank is attacked in almost every episode, notes “Agentstvo.” For example, at the end of June, V. Solovyov blamed the Central Bank for what is happening on the front. He said that Russia ran out of money for dams intended to protect bridges in occupied territories attacked by Ukrainian soldiers.
“How is that possible? Oh, right. We must not, God forbid, let [inflation] spiral,” said the TV host at the time.
At the same time, he called on law enforcement agencies to conduct an investigation regarding the Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank, Alexey Zabotkin.
