ArmInfo. At its meeting today, the Board of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) decided to leave the refinancing rate unchanged, at 9.25%.
The Lombard repo facility rate remained at 10.75%.
The Deposit facility rate remained at 7.75%.
CBA Chairman Martyn Galstyan will present the grounds at a press conference at 3:30pm.
The refinancing rate has been raised eight times since 2021 - from 5.25% to 9.25%.
This March, 1.8% official inflation was recorded in Armenia's consumer market, with the annual inflation (March 2022 against March 2021) reaching 7.4% against the 1% inflation in March and 5.8% annual inflation. The CBA-calculated core inflation was 1.6% this March, with the annual inflation at 7% against 1% last March and 6.6% annual inflation. The CBA forecast revised late this March provided for 6.6% inflation against the actual 7.7% inflation in 2021, with 4% targeted inflation in 2024. However, the CBA is most likely to revise its forecast this June, as it will consider the challenges amid the Russian-Ukrainian politico-military conflict and unprecedented western sanctions against Russia, which has a dominating share in Armenia's macroeconomic indicators.
The refinancing rate was last raised by 1.25% up to 9.25% on March 15, 2022, with the lombard repo facility rate raised from 9.5% up to 10.75% and deposit facility rate raised from 6.5% up to 7.75%. Earlier, on February 1, the refinancing rate was raised by 0.25% up to 8%, with the with the lombard repo facility rate raised from 9.25% up to 9.5% and deposit facility rate raised from 6.25% up to 6.5%. Last year, the refinancing rate was last raised on December 14, 2021, - from 7.25% up to 7.75%. Last year, the CBA raised the refinancing rate six times: in February (by 0.25% up to 5.5%), in May (by 0.5% up to 6%), in June (by 0.5% up to 6.5%), in August (by 0.5% up to 7%), in September (by 0.25% up to 7.25%) and in December (by 0.5% up to 7.75%), with the lombard repo facility rate raised from the initial 6.75% up to 9.25% last December, and deposit facility rate raised from the initial 3.75% up to 6.25%.
In 2020, the CBA revised the refinancing rate down four times and up one time. Specifically, after revising the refinancing rate from 5.5% down to 4.25% (March, April, June, September), the CBA revised it up to 5.25%, with the lombard repo facility rate and deposit facility rate at 6.75% and 3.75% respectively in December.