Medvedev ‘recommends’ 6-7% mortgage rate

Housing mortgage rates in Russia should not exceed 6-7 percent, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday. “Housing mortgages should be more or less accessible - not 15 percent, but 6 percent to 7 percent,” he said. The interest rate could be subsidized from the federal budget, he added. He said, however, that if inflation was brought down to the EU level, the mortgage interest rate would be quite different. “People should realize that they’ve got to pay this interest rate… not wait for favors from nature or the state, which will completely subsidize it,” the president said. “But that is a separate subject.”