CBA BOARD RAISES REFINANCING RATE BY 0.5% TO 6.5%

Noyan Tapan
March 10, 2010

YEREVAN, MARCH 10, NOYAN TAPAN. At the March 9 sitting, the Board
of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) took a decision to raise the
refinancing rate by 0.5% to 6.5%. Prior to that – on February 16,
the CBA Board had already raised the refinancing rate by 0.5%, fixing
it at 6%.

According to the press service of the CBA, 0,3% inflation was recorded
in February on January 2010, as a result of which the 12-month
inflation rose by 2.4 percentage points compared to the index of the
previous month and made 9.4%. Such a sharp increase in the 12-month
inflation index was due to an unprecedented fall in prices (1.8%)
in February of last year. Under such conditions, after reaching its
high in February, the inflation rate will decline starting from March,
despite the rise in the tariffs of some utility services on April 1.

In the opinion of the CBA Board, the inflation environment within
the foreseeable period will remain, due to the growth in prices of
raw materials and main foodstuffs in international markets and the
gradual recovery of economic activity in the previous months. Under
such conditions the CBA Board continues to attach importance to
gradual tightening of the monetary policy in order to reduce inflation
deviations from the target.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress