RAISED AVERAGE SALARIES IN ARMENIA’S ECONOMIC SECTOR TO DRIVE INFLATION RATE UP IN 2008

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Dec 18 2007

YEREVAN, December 18. /ARKA/. An average salary of people working in
Armenia’s economic sector will exceed the growth of average labor
productivity in 2008, and as a result, the labor market will drive
inflation rate up, Central Bank of Armenia says in its monetary
policy program.

The Central Bank’s experts say average wages in economic sector will
grow 18% in 2008.

They say that along with that unemployment rate will go 0.2 or 0.3
percentage points down.

In 2007, wages grew 20.5% and unemployment rate slipped 0.3 points
to 7.1%.

Labor productivity grew 13.3% in 2007 against 12.5% in the previous
year.

The experts think this growth mitigate inflation pressure coming from
the labor market.