MOSCOW, Feb 16 (Reuters) - The Russian rouble weakened on Friday, sliding to lows barely seen since early January as the central bank held its key interest rate at 16% at its first meeting of the year, following months of monetary tightening.
The bank said inflationary pressures had eased, but remained high, while domestic demand was still outstripping production capacity, with labour shortages the key constraint on expanding the output of goods and services.
By 1113 GMT, the rouble was 0.5% weaker against the dollar at 92.68, its lowest level since Jan. 4, bar two sessions, on Jan. 16 and Feb. 9, which saw sudden, sharp spikes that traders attributed to an algorithmic trading error by a major player.
It had lost 0.3% to trade at 99.58 versus the euro and had shed 0.1% against the yuan to 12.75 .
Governor Elvira Nabiullina will shed more light on monetary policy and other issues at a news conference at 1200 GMT.
"We believe that today's decision by the central bank generally coincided with market expectations and therefore will not have a significant impact on the rouble rate," said Mikhail Vasilyev, chief analyst at Sovcombank.
All 23 analysts polled by Reuters this week had predicted the rate hold.
The rouble has lost some support this month as the state slightly reduced its daily FX sales, but should get a boost as exporters convert foreign currency revenues to pay taxes later in the month.
Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia's main export, was down 1.1% at $81.99 a barrel.
Russian stock indexes were mixed.
The dollar-denominated RTS index was down 0.2% to 1,111.1 points. The rouble-based MOEX Russian index was 0.1% higher at 3,268.7 points.
For Russian equities guide see
For Russian treasury bonds see (Reporting by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Gareth Jones and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
