EXPERT: GAS PRICE RISE IN ARMENIA TO DRIVE INFLATION 0.5% UP

ARKA
March 31, 2010

YEREVAN, March 31. /ARKA/. Gas price rise in Armenia will drive
inflation 0.5% up, Gurgen Martirosyan, chief of Armenian National
Statistical Service’s unit on prices, said Tuesday at a press
conference.

"Gas expenses are included in subsistence. If gas prices go up, but
prices for other services remain unchanged, gas price rise alone will
heighten inflation 0.5%," he said.

But it is not clear yet whether there’ll be any increase in prices
for other services or not.

Martirosyan said that increase in gas and water prices added 1.5%
to the 2009 inflation, which reached 6.5%.

Natural gas price for Armenia’s consumers will be raised 37.5% to
AMD 132 on April 1, 2010, from present AMD 96 per one cubic meter.

Those consumers using more than 10,000 cubic meters of gas monthly
will pay $243.13 per each 1,000 cubic meters instead of $215 presently.

Armen Poghosyan, the chairman of Armenian Association of Gas Consumers,
is convinced that gas price rise will impact prices for other services.

In his opinion, prices for other goods and services can’t remain
pegged after the increase in gas prices.

Poghosyan said that Yerevan Jur Water Company is now reconsidering
water prices.

In late February, Yerevan Jur Water Company appealed to the Public
Services Regulatory Commission proposing to raise water price from
present 181 per one cubic meter to AMD 206.976. ($1 = AMD 396.59).