Finance minister: inflation in Armenia to range within
government-planned margins

YEREVAN, August 28. /ARKA/. Armenian Finance Minister Tigran Davtyan,
speaking Friday in Novosti International Press Center, said inflation
would range within the margins planned in the state budget.

The government planned 4% (±1.5%) inflation in the 2009 state budget.

`Now inflation rate is quite low in the country. The country recorded
monthly deflation. This deflation is due to season factors’, Davtyan
said answering ARKA News Agency’s question.

National Statistical Service of Armenia says 2.7% inflation was
recorded in the country in Jan-July 2009, compared with the same period
a year earlier.

Consumer prices grew 2.4%in July 2009, compared with December 2008, and
2.7% deflation was recorded in July, compared with June.

`We expect inflation to be quite low also in the next year’, Davtyan
said.

He thinks that signs of recovery are increasingly becoming visible in
Armenia and the recovery will begin later this year.

`This progress is mostly due to the steps the government has taken for
seven months and is being taken now’, the minister said. M.V.-0—