Russia`s economy ministry hopes to keep inflation within its 10.5 percent target this year due to falling domestic grain prices, a senior ministry official told Reuters on Tuesday.
Oleg Zasov, deputy director of the ministry`s macro-economic planning department, said inflation in May should reach 1.1 percent, in line with the ministry`s forecast of 1.0-1.1 percent and down from 1.4 percent in April.
"Inflation will be contained mainly by the falling grain prices. The harvest is expected to be good, which will help us combat inflation. We did not have the decline in our previous forecast," Zasov said.
"So, we expect to have the targeted figure in December versus December . It is absolutely feasible, although it does not look very much so now," he added.
Inflation has become the main economic headache of the government after exceeding the target by a wide margin last year and running at an annualised rate of 15 percent now.
Russia expects to harvest around 85 million tonnes of grain this year, which would be the second largest amount since 2002, when the country reaped 86.6 million tonnes. Last year it harvested 81.8 million tonnes.
Analysts expect the crop to be even larger this year.
Prices in Russia are on the decline, as supply rises ahead of the new crop and the sale of government grain proceeds.
The government has said that it would be ready to support prices by buying grain into its intervention fund this year if the prices fall too low. It has pledged to dedicate up to 30 billion roubles to buy 5 million tonnes.
But a powerful grain lobby, the Russian Grain Union, believes that the prices the government has set to support producers are too low and proposes raising them.
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