Russia Sets 8.5% Inflation Goal for ’06

Russia’s central bank set an inflation target of 8.5% for next year after missing its goal of 10% in each of the last two years.

The central bank’s goal is to keep consumer prices from advancing more than 8.5% next year, First Deputy Chairman Alexei Ulyukayev said. This year’s inflation rate will be about 11%, higher than the 10% target set by the government, he said.

President Vladimir V. Putin has called inflation, which reached 11.7% last year, one of the biggest threats to the country’s seven-year economic boom.