“Russian consumer prices rose more than economists estimated in January, advancing at the fastest rate in 15 months and bolstering the central bank’s case to resist government calls for lower borrowing costs.
The inflation rate was 7.1 percent, jumping from 6.6 percent the previous month, the Federal Statistics Service in Moscow said today in an e-mailed statement. The median estimate of 21 economists in a Bloomberg survey was 6.9 percent. Prices rose 1 percent from the previous month, topping estimates of a 0.8 percent advance.
Russia, the biggest emerging economy to raise interest rates last year, is seeking to cap inflation at 5 percent to 6 percent in 2013. President Vladimir Putin and members of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s government have said borrowing costs should be lowered to boost an economy that grew last year at the slowest pace since a 2009 recession.
“The January data may support the central bank in its dispute with the government that it’s too soon to ease monetary policy,” Alexander Morozov, chief economist for Russia at HSBC Holdings Plc. (HSBA) in Moscow, said by phone today. “I expect the central bank to lower interest rates only at the beginning of the fourth quarter, when inflation drops within the target range of 6 percent.”
