The Central Bank of Russia published its December business monitoring update, showing that moderate expansion in business activity continues but eased from the prior month. The Business Climate Index declined to 2.7 points in December from 3.4 points in November. Compared with November, companies reported more moderate assessments of current output and demand and more cautious short-term expectations. At the same time, businesses’ price expectations rose for the third consecutive month and remained elevated, with additional detail provided in the December issue of Monitoring of Businesses: Assessments, Expectations and Comments.