YEREVAN, December 23. /ARKA/. The Armenian Central Bank says in its money and credit program for the fourth quarter of 2011 that the median monthly salary in the fourth quarter of 2011 will rise by 6.1%.

The full-year salary rise is also projected at 6.1%. The projected growth will be due to ongoing productivity increase in the private sector since the beginning of the year, as well as to certain growth of wages in public sector. The program also forecast a 5% salary rise in the first nine months of 2012, due to the reduction in unemployment levels and productivity growth.

At the same time, despite the economic slowdown, the rise in demand for labor force will continue in the fourth quarter and will result in decline of unemployment. The average quarterly unemployment rate will decrease by 0.8 percentage points, reaching 6% in the 4^th quarter.

As follows from the forecasts of the Central Bank, in the first nine months of 2012 the average unemployment rate will drop to 5.9%, down 0.4 percentage points compared to the same period in 2011. According to official data, the median monthly nominal wage in November of this year amounted to 114, 766 drams, having increased by 6.3% compared with November 2010. -0-