Russia's Central Bank trimmed its bank-to-bank lending rate 0.5 percentage points to 9.5 percent per year as inflation has slowed, a bank official said.

Deputy Chairman Gennady Melikyan said Monday, "we are heading for inflation obviously under 10 percent," RIA Novosti reported.

The bank has cut its key rate eight times since January, having cut the annual rate to 10 percent at the end of September. The current rate is the lowest it has been since the early 1990s.