MOSCOW, May 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's consumer prices increased 6.6% from January 1 to May 18, the country's top statistics service Rosstat said on Wednesday.
Russia's inflation stood at 7.2% in the same period of last year, Rosstat said.
Consumer price growth in Russia started to slow down in April with prices growing by only 0.7%, compared with 1.3% in March.
Experts from the Economic Development Ministry attribute slower inflation to the decline in consumer demand, a result of the ongoing economic crisis.
Russia's Central Bank cut from May 14 its key lending rate by 0.5 percentage points to 12% per annum, following a slowdown in consumer price growth. Interest rates on other Bank of Russia operations were also cut by 0.5 points from May 14.
The government expects inflation to stay below 13% in 2009, compared to last year's figure of 13.3%.
