"Trade and economic ties are developing quite successfully lately, despite the pandemic and all the developments taking place around Russia, and restrictions associated with it," the Russian leader said.

Saudi Arabia ranks first among Russian barley buyers in 2024.

On July 26, the Board of Directors of the Bank of Russia decided to raise the key interest rate for the first time since December 2023 from 16% to 18% per annum.

The inflation forecast for this year has been raised to 6.5-7%.

It is reported that in the services sector, inflation slowed down to 0.16% amid the price decline for domestic airfare.

The Russian economy is gradually reducing dependency on export of commodities, developing through sectors that bring high added value, which is why China’s interest in cooperation with Russia is growing, Boris Titov noted.

"It is not easy to do in the machine tool industry within a short period but restoring competencies in machine tool engineering is a critical task," Mikhail Mishustin stressed.

Viktor Khmarin reported current activities of RusHydro and its financial results to the president.

According to the presentation, flour exports from Russia at the end of the 2023/2024 agricultural year amounted to 1.1 million tons.

In the previous week inflation in the country equaled 0.27%.