MOSCOW, April 6 (Reuters) - The Russian central bank will consider holding or raising interest rates at its April 23 board meeting as inflation is seen hovering above the 4% target throughout 2021, the bank's head of monetary policy, Kirill Tremasov, said.
After slashing the key rate to a record low of 4.25% in 2020 to help the economy overcome crisis sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic and crash in oil prices, the central bank raised it to 4.5% and said more hikes would follow.
Tremasov said in an interview with Reuters that geopolitical risks were not the key factor behind the March decision to raise the rates.
The Russian economy is likely to contract year-on-year in the first quarter before returning to growth in the second, Tremasov said. (Writing by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Katya Golubkova)
