YEREVAN, October 11. / ARKA /. Armenia’s Central Bank Board has decided today to leave its benchmark refinancing rate unchanged at 8 percent. The Central Bank said in a statement that a 0.8% inflation was registered in September, as a result the 12-month inflation rose by 1.4 p.p. to 6.2%.

 

The Central Bank Board noted that external impulses affecting the inflation environment continue to remain neutral. However, the response of macroeconomic policy of developed countries to their fundamental imbalance still remains uncertain.

 

The statement also says that internal economic impulses, affecting the inflationary environment, in general are constraining under the impact of the labor market, private spending, as well as fiscal and monetary policies, which in future will increasingly depend on external economic processes.

 

The Board said it believes that inflation process of recent months are in tune with its monetary policy in 2011.

 

"Despite the fact that in late September inflation exceeded the upper limit of the allowable corridor of fluctuations, however, in the coming months it is expected to gradually decline," says the statement.

 

It stresses that after lowering the refinancing rate by 0.5 percentage points in September the market interest rates in cases of moderate risks associated with uncertainty will enable to establish a level of aggregate demand, in which inflation will be forming in the allowable fluctuation corridor of n 4% (± 1,5%).

 

The last time the Central Bank lowered its refinancing rate by 0.5 percentage point was on the 6th of September, bringing it to 8%. The government projects a 4% (±1,5%) inflation for this year. -0-