YEREVAN, August 24. /ARKA/. The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) is expecting the country’s GDP growth to range between 2.7% and 2.9% for the first half of this year, according to CBA’s inflation report based on the monetary-credit policies program.
The report says that economic activity in the first half of 2015 was 4.2%, which was above the expectations, mainly due to higher economic growth rates in agriculture and industry.
In terms of demand, the economic activity growth was promoted by favorable budget policies and substantial weakening of the monetary and credit terms by the Central Bank, which helped mitigate the effects of the reduction of demand and investments, according to the report.
Growth rates were 5.1% in industry, 14.5% in agriculture, 0.6% in construction and 3.3% in services sector. An 8.2% decline was recorded in trade, according to the report.
At the same time, the Central Bank has raised the projection of the economy growth for 2015 and is expecting now the GDP growth to range between 2.8% and 3.6% in the period.
Upward revisions of the economic growth projections for 2015 were caused mainly by the weakening of the monetary and credit conditions amid financial stability and the more promotional than planned tax and budget policies, as well as by positive developments in the rural sector, says the report.
According to the report, Armenia’s consumer prices in January-June 2015 rose by 5.1% as compared to the same period of the year before. The 12-month inflation was 5.5% in June this year, having reached the upper limit of the target inflation range.
According to the government budget, GDP growth is planned to be 4.1% in 2015 and inflation is expected to be 4% (±1.5%). –0–
