Russian households' inflation expectations rise in December

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Inflationary expectations among Russian households for the year ahead rose to 13.9% in December, the highest value since the start of the year, from 13.4% in November, the central bank said on Wednesday.

Households inflationary expectations are an important gauge for the central bank when deciding on the key interest rate. The regulator is expected to hike the rate by 200 basis points (bps) at a meeting on Dec. 20.

The central bank raised the benchmark rate to 21% in October, the highest level in more than 20 years, citing high inflation and elevated inflationary expectations as the main reasons for the move.

Russia's latest weekly data indicated that inflation shows no sign of slowing down despite the tightening and has already exceeded the central bank's full-year estimate of 8.5%, running at 8.8%.

(Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya, writing by Gleb Bryanski, editing by Angus MacSwan)

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