MOSCOW, June 4 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Central Bank announced on Thursday it would further cut its key lending rate by 0.5 percentage points to 11.5% per annum from June 5, following a slowdown in consumer price growth.
The Central Bank last cut its refinancing rate by 0.5 points to 12% on May 14.
Analysts say the move is intended to bring down interest rates on loans granted to the real sector to help domestic enterprises amid the ongoing economic crisis.
Russia's inflation stood at 0.2% for the week of May 26-June 1, and reached 6.8% since the start of 2009, the statistics service Rosstat said on Wednesday. The figure for the same period of 2008 was 7.7%.
The government expects inflation to stay below 13% in 2009, compared to last year's figure of 13.3%.
