YEREVAN, February 14. /ARKA/ Armenia’s Central Bank decided today to leave the key refinancing rate unchanged at 6%. It said consumer prices in January 2018 rose by 2.7%, almost as much as in 2017 January. Thus, the 12-month inflation at the end of January 2018 was 2.7%.
The regulator said also that external developments were manifested largely in the ongoing growth trends and in the persisting inflationary environment in some international commodity markets. This in mind, the Central Bank of Armenia expects weak inflationary pressures from the external sector.
It said also a fairly high economic activity in the fourth quarter of 2017 was driven by high growth in the services and industry. According to the regulator, the high economic activity was accompanied by rapid growth in private domestic demand, contributed by the expansionary monetary policy and the relatively high growth in lending to the economy.
Nevertheless, there is still the need for monetary stimulus to ensure the stability of demand recovery, especially given that additional inflationary expectations have been weakened sufficiently.
With this in mind, the Central Bank considers it expedient to maintain the current level of monetary and credit terms. It is expected that inflation will continue to grow gradually, remaining within the projected band.
The last time the regulator changed the refinancing rate was in March 2017, when it was set at 6%. -0-
