YEREVAN, March 17, /ARKA/. Head of World Bank Yerevan Office, Aristomene Varoudakis, predicted today that the inflation in 2010 will remain on the level of 2009 or will be higher a little. In response to a question from a journalist whether it means that by 2010 the inflation will be 7%, Mr. Varoudakis said it was still early to speak about it.

According to the official figures, consumer prices in 2009 December rose by 6.5% year-on-year.

Mr. Varoudakis said the inflation in February was 9.4%, but it was not due to domestic demand because the Armenian economy is still weak. Consumer prices in February rose by 0.3% from January as a result the 12 month inflation reached 9.4%.

According to Mr. Varoudakis, the inflation is due to natural gas price rise and delayed effect of the depreciated national currency Dram, as well as some rise of prices of consumer goods at global markets. In his words, these factors will not be permanent and a little later the inflation rate will begin to drop.

‘We consider that at a certain period of time this year the inflation growth will stop and it will begin to reduce,’ he said. M.M. -0-