INFORMATION OF THE CENTRAL BANK OF RUSSIA

of December 25, 2009

The Department for External and Public Relations of the Bank of Russia reports that the Board of directors of the Bank of Russia made on December 25, 2009 the decision on decrease since December 28, 2009 of refunding rate and interest rates for separate transactions of the Bank of Russia on 0,25 of percent point (table "Interest Rates for Transactions of the Bank of Russia").

From 1 till December 21 of the current year the surplus of consumer prices in Russia constituted % 0,4. Annual inflation (surplus of consumer prices for the last 12 months) continued to decrease and for December 21, 2009 constituted 9% whereas the corresponding indicator was equal in previous year to % 13,5. Taking into account favorable inflation expectations and the decision of the Bank of Russia on decrease in interest rates the risk of exceeding of the official forecast of inflation for 2010 is estimated as insignificant.

In November, 2009 increase in index of industrial production continued, and for the first time for the last months increase in production in annual terms was noted. At the same time significant improvement of indicators of credit activity of the Russian banks is still not observed. The decision on decrease in interest rates, as expected, will mitigate action of the factors constraining economic recovery and will fix stability of the created GDP growth tendencies.

In the conditions of general increase in bank liquidity decrease in interest rates will promote restriction of inflow of the short-term foreign capital. At the same time the probability of growth of volatility in the foreign exchange market and the corresponding course risks is not excluded.

Further steps of the Bank of Russia will be determined by interest rate realignment by development of inflation tendencies, dynamics of indicators of production and credit activity, and also condition of the domestic financial market.

Interest rates for transactions of the Bank of Russia, %

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                 |     Срок      |    с    |    c   |
|                                 |               |25.11.09 |28.12.09|
|---------------------------------+---------------+---------+--------|
|Ломбардные аукционы (минимальные |    14 дней    |

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