ArmInfo. Head of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) Arthr Javadyan is on a working visit to Washington to attend 2016 Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the IMF and the World Bank Group to be held in Washington, D.C., during the week of October 3-9.
According to the CBA press-office, Arthur Javadyan will participate in the plenary discussions and meetings of the Netherland/Belgium subgroups IMF and WB. Meetings with Masood Ahmed, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Frank Heemskerk, Executive Director at the Board of the World Bank Group representing the Constituency of Armenia, as well as with the heads of central banks and financial departments.
The Netherlands/Belgium subgroup of IMF and WB comprises 15 countries: Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, The Netherlands, Romania and Ukraine.
IMF has improved its forecast for GDP growth in Armenia in 2016 to 3.2% with further acceleration in 2017 to 3.4%. In its previous forecast IMF expected 2.25-2.5% GDP growth in Armenia in 2016. Besides, IMF forecasts positive dynamics of prices for Armenia, which at year end of 2016 will drop by 0.5%, according to the new IMF economic outlook presented on October 4 in Washington on the threshold of annual meeting of IMF and WB executive boards.
World Bank forecasts a 1.9% (vs previous 2.5%) GDP growth for Armenia in 2016, and 2.8%-2.9% in 2017-2018. EBRD forecasts economic growth to 2% in 2016. The Central Bank of Armenia revised its economic growth forecast for Armenia in 2016 from the previous 1.5%-2.6% to 2.7%- 3.6%, in its monetary policy program for Q2 2016 but in the next November program it will possibly revise forecast towards slackening. According to the statistical data economic activity in Jan-Aug 2016 grew by 2.4% y-o-y versus 3.9% growth in the same period of 2015 mainly due industry (7%) and services (8%).