Heterogeneity of regional inflation and its importance for monetary policy.

Relevance. Since 2015, the Bank of Russia's priority target has been an inflation rate of around 4%. For this purpose, a unified state monetary policy is being implemented, which, through monetary levers, affects the amount of aggregate demand in the entire economy. The regulator does not establish convergence of the consumer price index with the target in all regions. The risk of an approach without taking into account spatial specifics is that in those regions where inflation is persistently below target, monetary policy is more stringent, and vice versa. This justifies the importance of analyzing the heterogeneity of regional inflation and finding ways to eliminate differences. The purpose is to assess and identify the causes of the heterogeneity of inflation in the regions of the Russian Federation, as well as to analyze its significance for monetary policy purposes. Objectives: to consider the significance of regional price heterogeneity and its distorting effect on monetary policy; to identify and systematize the causes; to analyze the dynamics and structure of inflation in the regions of the Russian Federation; to identify the causes of deviations from the national dynamics. Methodology. The following were used: statistical methods, the method of source analysis, the comparative method. Results. Regional heterogeneity of inflation is primarily associated with initial differences in prices for goods and services, while there is a stable interregional convergence of prices for all commodity groups. In different periods, there was a significant deviation in growth rates and price levels, which is associated with non-monetary factors, represented by both one-time shocks and regional differences. Conclusions. The degree of deviation of regional inflation from the all-Russian level has gradually decreased since the 2000s to the present, both in aggregate and broken down by commodity groups, which indicates a reduction in the contribution of regional factors in favor of federal ones, which justifies the effectiveness of establishing a single goal for monetary policy. The need for further elimination (compensation) of non-monetary factors in individual regions is substantiated.

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