INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The Russian economy is showing "significant" signs of a slowdown in some sectors as it grapples with waning growth and high inflation, the
head of the country's biggest lender warned Friday.Russia's Central Bank has taken interest rates to a two-decade high of 21% as Moscow
battles to stem the economic fallout from its invasion of Ukraine and a barrage of Western sanctions.Inflation is running at more than twice
the government's 4% target, in part due to huge spending on the war, while the value of the ruble has slumped in recent months."We are now
seeing significant signals of economic slowdown, particularly in housing construction and investment," German Gref, the CEO of state-run
Sberbank, was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies at an investor forum.He cautioned the Central Bank against "overshooting" its rates
policy, making it "harder to return to the rails of economic growth."The regulator is set to decide on borrowing costs at a meeting on Dec
20, with some analysts suggesting the Bank could hike interest rates to as high as 23%.Russia has massively ramped up military spending on
shortages and persistent inflation.Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina has called interest rates a "powerful instrument for the fight
with inflation."But economists say that because inflation is being driven by record state spending on the war in Ukraine, higher borrowing
costs have less of an impact on reining in price rises than in a more market-based economy.
