How the Russian economy approached the last meeting of the Central Bank, the week of Trump the peacemaker and the Nobel for the study of economic growth

Next week, the Bank of Russia will hold a meeting on the discount rate for the penultimate time this year. Both data and rhetoric indicate that even the expectation of a 100 basis point cut—to 16%—may be too optimistic. The Central Bank is caught between an increasingly obvious structural slowdown in the economy, which requires a rate cut to revive lending and demand, and still high inflation, which prevents this from happening. Added to this is the rise in fuel prices caused by Ukrainian attacks on refineries.