Putin urges government and central bank to coordinate action to curb high inflation

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin called for the government and central bank to coordinate their efforts to curb high inflation, saying on Wednesday that increasing the supply of goods and services to match demand was the way to rein in price growth.

Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said earlier on Wednesday that annual inflation - currently running at nearly 9% - had not started to slow yet. She said inflation would fall over the course of 2025 before reaching the central bank's target rate of 4% in 2026.

"It is also necessary to curb inflation, which is currently at a fairly high level," Putin told an international investment conference organised by Russia's second-largest lender VTB in Moscow.

"To achieve positive results in this area, coordinated joint actions by the government and the Bank of Russia are needed. I emphasise this is not an appeal or a wish, but I think, a direct call to action," Putin said.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy Papachristou and Gleb Bryanski; Editing by Andrew Osborn)