Russia: Inflation eases more than expected in November from October
Latest reading: Consumer prices were up 6.6% in annual terms in November, following a 7.7% rise in the prior month. November’s reading was below market expectations and the weakest since September 2023.
Relative to the previous month’s data, there were milder price pressures for non-food goods (+3.5% on a year-on-year basis vs +3.8% in October), food and non-alcoholic beverages (+7.5% vs +9.2% in October) and services (+9.4% vs +10.4% in October).
Meanwhile, core consumer prices were up 6.1% in annual terms in November, following a 6.9% rise in the prior month.
Lastly, consumer prices rose 0.42% in November on a month-on-month basis, following a 0.50% increase in the previous month.
Panelist insight: Commenting on the outlook, Clemens Grafe, analyst at Goldman Sachs, stated:
“While the economy has slowed sharply, we and the Bank of Russia estimate that the output gap is only closing in H1-26, which suggests that service price inflation is only going to decline slowly.”