The impact of the summer drought on Russian inflation has already become apparent and will remain until the end of 2010, Russian Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin said on Saturday.
"In the beginning of the next year the drought's influence will start to decrease and the prices will flatten out," Kudrin told Rossia 24 TV channel.
Russian inflation was 0.9 percent in September, according to the Ministry of Economic Development.
Russia has lost some 30 million tons of grain due to the heat wave that had gripped much of European Russia from mid-June to August. The drought cut grain crops by a third, the potato harvest by 24.4 percent, and vegetables by 6.1 percent. Russia imposed an export ban on wheat in August following a drought this summer that wiped out around a quarter of the nation's crops.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said Russia will lift a ban on grain exports after next year's harvest is gathered in, not this year's.
YALTA, October 2 (RIA Novosti)
