“Despite the fact that inflation has seriously decreased, we do not feel like we have achieved our goal. Our goal is not to have 4% in a single month, but to ensure stable low inflation in the medium term, and we will be able to say in two or three years that we have achieved a low stable inflation rate. I think that the positive effects from low inflation will be the most pronounced in two or three years”, Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said while speaking at the panel session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

She said the monetary and credit policy (MCP) is unable to “break through the ceiling” of potential economic growth and this is the goal of structural reforms. “But, of course, the MCP is capable of ensuring stability in [GDP] output close to potential growth, the absence of crashes and the absence of major recessions. In this regard, we are different from many countries”, Nabiullina said. She also noted that attempts to artificially weaken the national currency in the long term are harmful “because they mainly rely on the motivation of price competitiveness”.

Nabiullina stressed that low information does not create economic growth by itself.

“We all understand this perfectly well. But low inflation, along with an active economic reform agenda and an agenda in which investors believe, can certainly help economic growth, and I also estimate that in this case growth may be 3–3.5 %”, Nabiullina said.

At present, the potential ceiling for economic growth in the Russian Federation is estimated at 1.5–2%, she said.