“Third wave” of inflation is predicted in Russia – Rosbalt

A new wave of food-related inflation could begin next year. This was stated at the forum “Made in Russia” by the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Andrei Belousov.

In his opinion, “the covid story has significantly shifted the macroeconomic balance, and the world has not yet found an equilibrium point,” as evidenced by “inflationary waves,” RIA Novosti reports.

“We are now going through a second wave of inflation, and obviously there will be a third, because now there is a second wave – it is highly likely to generate a third wave, again related to food, which we will face in 2022, especially in the second half of the year,” he does not exclude first deputy chairman of the government.

We will remind, on December 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the rise in prices is global in nature, and it was led to “the extremely soft budgetary policy of a number of foreign countries.”

Meanwhile, in Russia, annual inflation reached 8.4% in November, the highest since January 2016. According to Rosstat estimates, consumer prices were accelerated by a five-year record rise in the price of services – by 5.2%.

Note that in October, consumer prices in Russia increased by 8.13% YoY after rising 7.4% in September and 6.68% in August. Compared to the previous month, inflation amounted to 1.11% in October after 0.6% in September, and since the beginning of the year (to December 2020) prices have increased by 6.49%.

The official forecast of the Russian government on inflation for 2021 is already 7.4% (the estimate was revised from 5.8% and earlier – from 4.3% and 3.7%). On October 22, the Central Bank raised its estimate of annual inflation from the previous range of 5.7-6.2% to 7.4-7.9% at the end of this year.

In 2020, inflation in Russia reached 4.91% (December to December 2019) after 3.04% in the previous year. Moreover, the result of 2019 was the second lowest value of this indicator in the entire history of modern Russia. The absolute minimum was recorded at the end of 2017 – 2.5%, and in 2018 prices increased by 4.3%.