The Central Bank of Russia predicts economic growth in Russia of 0.5-2% and inflation of 4.5-6.5% for the current year. In February, the monetary watchdogs were still expecting economic output to shrink and inflation to rise slightly. At the same time, the central bank downgraded its forecast for the Russian current account surplus in 2023 from $66 billion to $47 billion. The central bank again left the key interest rate at 7.5% last Friday, but held out the prospect of a future hike should inflation pick up again.