Expert RA CEO Marina Chekurova predicts the Bank of Russia will cut its key rate by 50 basis points on June 19, with further gradual reductions to 12% by December. She noted the economic situation warrants a faster cut but warned external shocks or accommodative fiscal policy could slow easing.
President Vladimir Putin stated that Western sanctions against Russian entrepreneurs sometimes affect even distant relatives, reaching to "third elbow relation" (extended family). Speaking in Moscow, Putin emphasized that the Russian economy has been operating under serious external challenges for many years, including difficult economic conditions, illegitimate sanctions and other adverse circumstances.
Financial markets, stock markets especially, appear able to defy gravity despite the global geopolitical and economic situation. A plethora of institutional and individual explanations have been offered as to why, but most seem to miss the point. Which is, at least in part, that we have created a kind of monster in the asset management industry, which channels a glut of global savings into a limited number of investment areas and which, by virtue of these captive inflows, is able to maintain...
