Russia's central bank held its key interest rate at 7.5% on Friday, maintaining its hawkish rhetoric as a widening budget deficit and labour shortages pose inflationary risks, and said it would consider the need for rate hikes at upcoming meetings.

Last year, the bank gradually reversed an emergency rate hike to 20% made in late February following Russia's decision to send tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine and the imposition of wide-ranging Western sanctions in response. It has now held rates steady at 7.5% since the last cut in September.

Annual inflation, which spiked to over 20-year highs in 2022, slowed to 7.65% as of March 13, as last year's base effect takes hold. The Bank of Russia sees year-end inflation at 5.0-7.0%, reaching its 4% target in 2024.

"Accelerating fiscal spending, deteriorating terms of foreign trade and the situation in the labour market continue to pose pro-inflation risks," the bank said in a statement. "The overall balance of inflation risks has remained essentially the same since the previous board meeting."

The decision came in line with a Reuters poll, with analysts expecting the bank to maintain its hawkish rhetoric before possibly hiking the cost of borrowing later this year.

Inflationary pressure, though elevated, is showing signs of easing, with households' inflation expectations for the year ahead dropping to 10.7% in March.

Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina will shed more light on the bank's forecasts and policy in a media briefing at 1200 GMT.

The next rate-setting meeting is scheduled for April 28. (Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya and Alexander Marrow; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)