CBA BOARD LEAVES REFINANCING INTEREST RATE UNCHAGED – 4.5%

Noyan Tapan
May 02 2007

YEREVAN, MAY 2, NOYAN TAPAN. By the May 2 decision, the Board of the
Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) left the CBA refinancing interest rate
unchanged – setting it at 4.5%. NT was informed about it from the
CBA press service.

According to the same source, 0.1% inflation was registered in April
2007 on the previous month, in connection with which the 12-month
inflation made 4.2%, which is lower by one percentage point than the
same index in early 2007.

Discussing the macroeconomic environment developments in the first
quarter of 2007, as well as taking into account the low inflation
index in April, the CBA Board stated that inflation pressures from the
external sector remain mild as compared with last year (despite higher
international prices of oil products than was expected), while gross
demand developments do not pose a danger of extra inflation pressures.

The CBA Board also stated that in case of availability of new
information about economic development tendencies in the coming months,
the Board does not rule out the possibility of correcting interest
rates in the future.