The Russian Central Bank cut its key interest rate by 1.5 percentage points to 12.5 percent on Thursday, April 30, to stimulate the economy as it heads into recession, the Associated Press reports.

The bank said a reduced threat of runaway inflation, which slowed slightly to 16.5 percent in April, had made the cut possible, but said there remained a risk of "a significant cooling of the economy."

Thursday's rate cut is the third since December, when the Central Bank raised rates to 17 percent overnight to defend the then-plummeting value of the ruble.

The bank did not update its prediction that the economy will shrink by between 3.5 percent and 4 percent this year, although it did say that indicators point to "a significant decline in GDP in the first quarter" of the year.