Tuesday, September 24 2013 20:12
Central Bank retains refinancing rate at 8.5%
ArmInfo. The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) has retained the refinancing rate at 8.5%. The CBA press service has told ArmInfo that the decision was made during the CBA Council's meeting on Sept 24.
The source says that in August 2013 inflation was 0.3% against 0.4% deflation in August 2012, and the annual inflation made up 9.3% by late August. The CBA Council thinks that inflation will gradually be dropping and will get round to the target level within the next few months.
Given the easing of inflation pressure from the foreign and domestic markets and the economic activity deceleration, the CBA Council thinks that the retention of the monetary conditions will allow balancing the risks of expansion of the inflationary environment and the economic activity decline. The CBA Council will dampen the monetary conditions in response to the gradual inflation reduction and maintenance of the low domestic demand level.
The economic growth in the world is slowing down, with deflation registered on most of commodity and food markets. So, the CB is expecting no inflationary pressure from abroad.
The domestic demand is declining due to low private consumption and fiscal policy restraints.
On Apr 12 2011 the CB reduced the refinancing rate from 8.5% to 8% and kept it unchanged until Aug 13 2013 when it put it back to 8.5%. The same day the CB raised the deposit rate to 6.5% to 7%.
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