(Adds economy ministry’s assessment of inflation, analyst comment, background) MOSCOW, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Russia’s annual inflation has accelerated to a fresh five-year high days before a central bank board meeting, keeping up the pressure to continue raising interest rates after a sharp hike in July. Inflation accelerated to 6.79% year-on-year in the week to Aug. 30 from 6.68% a week earlier, the economy ministry said on Wednesday. Inflation is on the radar of both the central bank, which targets it at 4%, and the market as Russia tries to rein in rising prices that eat into incomes already dented by the COVID-19 crisis and a weak rouble. The central bank is expected to raise its key interest rate for the fifth time this year on Sept. 10 to at least 6.75% from 6.50%, a Reuters poll of analysts showed this week. Some experts predicted a bigger hike of 50 basis points. “With the economy continuing to recover and no clear sign yet that consumer demand growth is slowing, the central bank will remain focused on tackling high inflation,” research firm Capital Economics said in a note. Russia’s consumer prices are climbing as the economy rebounds after shrinking 3.0% in 2020, its sharpest contraction in 11 years. In the first six months of 2021, gross domestic product grew 4.8%, data from the federal statistics service Rosstat showed on Wednesday. Russia’s unemployment rate fell further in July, returning to levels seen in 2019, while rising retail sales and salaries confirmed an economic recovery was underway. In weekly terms, Russia’s consumer price index rose 0.09% in the week to Aug. 30 after edging up just 0.01% the week before, Rosstat data showed. So far this year, the consumer price index has risen 4.68% compared with 2.95% in the same period of 2020, Rosstat said. Consumer inflation may tick higher in the near term after President Vladimir Putin, one month before a September parliamentary election, announced one-off social payments to pensioners and soldiers. (Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh Editing by Hugh Lawson and Mark Potter) Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.