YEREVAN, December 18, /ARKA/. The Central Bank of Armenia is not planning a revision of the key refinancing rate in the next six months, a Central Bank Board member Artur Stepanyan told reporters on Tuesday.
He said amid the current low inflationary environment the Central Bank will maintain the expansionary monetary policy.
“This means that in the coming months, in all likelihood, we will not make changes to the refinancing rate,” said Stepanyan. According to him, the future moves will depend on the development of events after the mid 2019. “However, before that, we will keep the expansionary policy within 6%, at least in the near future,” said Stepanyan.
The Central Bank began to gradually lower the refinancing rate from the second half of 2015 after a protracted period of tight policies. As a result, the rate decreased from 10.5% in June 2015 to 6% in February 2017. During this period, the regulator reduced the refinancing rate 12 times, including 8 times in 2016. In March 2017, the Central Bank set the refinancing rate at 6%, which has been preserved until now.-0-
