MOSCOW, October 24 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian government is not planning any further increases in export duties on grain, the Russian economics minister said Wednesday.
"There is no need to do so at the moment. We are monitoring the situation," Elvira Nabiullina said.
Last week, Russia set export duty on grain at 10%, but not less than 22 euros per metric ton to offset growing consumer prices on bread and flour.
The need for grain intervention arose when grain prices reached a record level of 6,300 rubles ($250) per metric ton of class 4 wheat and 5,700 rubles ($226) per metric ton of forage fodder in July 2007. Prices of bread, flour and other wheat-based food products also grew as a result.
Taking into account food price growth, consumer prices in Russia grew 7.5% in the first nine months of 2007or 0.3% more than in the same period of last year. In September alone they climbed 0.8%, making the government's 8% inflation target for 2007 unrealistic.
