The latest weekly data released by the Russian Federal State Statistics Service on Wednesday showed that as of the week ending December 23, the Russian CPI rose by 0.33%, bringing the inflation rate for the year to 9.5%. Before the release of the above data, the Russian central bank unexpectedly decided to keep the key interest rate unchanged at 21% last week. The regulatory body stated that recent tightening policies have created favorable conditions for reducing the inflation rate to the target of 4%. Andrei Gangan, head of the monetary policy department of the Russian central bank, stated that the annual inflation rate in Russia will be between 9.6% and 9.8%.