Russia's inflation rate accelerated slightly in the week from February 20 to 26, inching up to 7.58% from 7.57% the previous week, according to the Ministry of Economic Development's latest data. (chart)

The increase was despite several large rate hikes by the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) that culminated in December and brought the prime rate to 16%. Russia’s economy is overheating  thanks to war spending and the CBR is struggling to contain inflation, which remains Russia’s main economic headache.

During the week, consumer market inflation stood at 0.13% year-on-year, with a notable distinction in the rate of price growth across different sectors.

"The food products segment saw a decrease in price growth to 0.19%. Specifically, fruits and vegetables experienced a slowdown to 0.61%, while other food products maintained last week's level of 0.15%," the ministry reported. Conversely, the non-food segment saw a negligible price dip of 0.01%, and the service sector witnessed inflation at 0.3%, influenced primarily by adjustments in domestic flight ticket prices.

Comparatively, inflation for the week of February 20 to 26 marked an acceleration from the 0.11% recorded between February 13 and 19, according to the Russian Statistics Service (Rosstat).

Since the onset of February, consumer prices have seen an increase of 0.56%, with a year-to-date rise of 1.42%. The annual inflation rate, calculated using average daily data and compared to similar dates in the previous year, stood at 7.58% as of February 26, 2024.