The Russian Finance Ministry expects banks to cut their loan rates to 7-8 percent from the current 11-15 percent, if inflation falls to 5 percent in 2013, Vedomosti business daily newspaper said on Friday.
Inflation has been slowing down since March 2009, when it stood at 14 percent. In July 2010 it was 5.5 percent.
Oleg Solntsev from the Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-term Forecasting told the newspaper that local banks greatly depended on foreign banks for funding and if foreign banks saw new problems, Russian banks' rates would go up regardless of local inflation rates.
MOSCOW, August 6 (RIA Novosti)
