It was the highest weekly price rise since the week to Oct. 18, when prices jumped 6.8 percent, distorted by the ruble's crash to record lows.
Irina Goryacheva, head of the price forecasting department at the government's center for economic analysis, said the lower ruble and seasonal price rises for food and vegetables were the main reasons for the higher inflation rate. The center estimates that imported goods currently make up about 40 percent of the goods in Russia's consumer-price basket.
The weekly data will make it hard for Russia to meet a November inflation target of 7 or 8 percent that was outlined by new Economics Minister Yevgeny Yasin in an interview with the newspaper Trud.
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