Odaily Planet Daily News On Wednesday, the latest weekly data released by the Russian Federal State Statistics Service showed that as of the week ending December 23, the Russian CPI rose by 0.33%, and the inflation rate for the year has reached 9.5%. Prior to the release of this data, the Russian central bank unexpectedly decided to keep the key interest rate unchanged at 21% last week. The regulatory agency stated that the 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%.