elvira nabiullina : review of recent inflation developments in russia and economic outlook statement by ms elvira nabiullina, governor of the bank of russia, in the follow - up to the board of directors meeting, moscow, 10 september 2021. * * * good afternoon, w e have made the decision to raise the key rate by 25 basis points to 6. 75 % per annum and we hold open the prospect of further rises at the upcoming meetings. our today ’ s decision is based on the following. first, the economy is returning to a balanced growth path. although the pandemic persists, economic activity bounced back to its pre - pandemic levels already in the second quarter of 2021. moreover, excluding the oil sector where production is still limited due to the opec + agreement, output in the economy has not only recovered, but returned to the trend, to the growth path observed before the outbreak of the pandemic. employment has restored almost completely. according to july data, the unemployment rate is close to its record lows. in other words, a further development of the economy and output growth will predominantly depend on the growth rate of labour productivity. according to the bank of russia ’ s estimate, taking into account the structural measures implemented by the government, the pace of such balanced, or potential gdp growth, which is the same, will equal from 2 % to 3 % annually. of course, the development of the economy is uneven. the pandemic caused significant changes in the work and everyday life of both households and businesses. as the economy continues to adjust to these changes, the situation is still uneven across different sectors. in addition to the above - mentioned oil industry, passenger transportation and international travel still remain below pre - pandemic levels as well. when restrictions were toughened, public catering and entertainment companies faced a decline in the demand for their services. nonetheless, a lot of industries are demonstrating steadily higher output and sales than before the outbreak of the pandemic. specifically, there has been a surge in the demand for durable goods ( computers, telecommunication devices, and household appliances ) and online trade and delivery services. the lockdown period boosted the demand for countryside housing and better housing conditions in general. these uneven trends across both industries and regions are also described in the regional economy report released by our regional branches before the quiet period. the situation in the labour market also evidences that the economy has not only recovered, but is generally returning

elvira nabiullina : review of russia's economic and financial developments in 2016 speech by ms elvira nabiullina, governor of the bank of russia, at the plenary session of the state duma of the russian federation, moscow, 9 june 2017. * * * dear vyacheslav volodin, and deputies of the state duma! the central bank is guided in its actions by strategic objectives. i want to note that across the country, every employee of the bank of russia knows what these are. they are the basis on which key performance indicators for employees are formulated. these objectives are : price stability ; financial market sustainability ; availability of financial products and services for households and businesses ; development of the national payment system ; development of technologies and support of innovations in the financial market. these objectives follow directly from the functions of the central bank, as defined by the constitution and by the law. yesterday, i took another look at the speech i gave to the duma four years ago. yes, of course, life has made adjustments. no one back in 2013 expected such negative external factors, the sanctions, and the drop in oil prices. so the task of ensuring financial stability has come to the forefront of our activities. but in dealing with this problem, we have tried not to lose sight of strategically important activities that we assigned ourselves four years ago, and we must continue to work towards the completion of these. as regards monetary policy, the bank of russia set itself the task of reducing inflation from the level at that time of 7 % to 3 - 4 %. but, as you will see, we also noted that the rate of decline must be dictated by the economic situation. therefore, due to external shocks, achieving this target took longer than expected. however we are already very close to the target level. the second objective in terms of monetary policy which we set ourselves four years ago was to increase the flexibility of the exchange rate. we have moved to a floating exchange rate and consider this to have been the right decision, as the negative experiences of other exporting countries that did not switch to a floating exchange rate prove to us that this needed to be done. within the banking sector, we set ourselves the tasks of strengthening supervision and withdrawing from the market of weak players. unfortunately, accumulated problems in the banking sector turned out to be more serious than was assumed four years ago. and this situation has only been aggravated by crisis. the process of cleaning up the