YEREVAN, September 2, /ARKA/. Harutyun Mesrobian, a management analyst, warned today that the full-year inflation rate in Armenia this year may go beyond 10%. Speaking at a news conference he said there is no doubt that the annual rate of inflation will be higher than the government projected level of 4±1.5%. In his words the problem is what kind of methodology will be used to calculate the rate of inflation because the discrepancy is big when different methodologies are used. According to official figures, last year’s rate of inflation climbed to 6.5%.
Mesrobian reminded that late last year finance minister Tigran Davtian had predicted a 3 – 4% rate of inflation for 2010, but the government revised it upward to 4±1.5% when elaborating this year’s budget. He then recalled that prime minister Tigran Sarkisian had forecast a 7% inflation for 2010 when speaking to a news conference in April. Mesrobian said in the first half of the year the inflation grew by 7.3% from a year before.
Hakob Hakobian, chairman of a parliament committee on social issues, downplayed this forecast saying there is no reliable methodology to calculate the real rate of inflation.
“I can not rule out that the rate of inflation may reach 8% or drop to 3%. It depends on what kind of action the Central Bank will take and how the economy will develop,’ he said.
Armenia’s inflation in August rose by 1.3% from July. The consumer index in August rose by 5% from 2009 December. Prices of food rose by 6.4%, prices of non-foods by 2.7% and prices of services by 3.7%. -0-
