YEREVAN, June 21. /ARKA/. Developments in Armenia’s financial market in the past few months has pushed return rates on government securities by 1 percentage point up, Orakarg (Agenda) newspaper says in its today’s issue.

It says the cost of short-term borrowing was particularly influenced by the depreciation of the Armenian national currency by 6% over the last 45 days. As a result, in May the average rate on short-term government bonds rose by 0.03 percentage points to 13.3%, up from 12.45% from a year earlier.

The return rate on medium-and long-term government securities has risen too, it says. Thus, the weighted average yield on long-term government bonds auctioned on June 14 was 16.37%, up from 15.38% in February.

The newspaper writes that unlike the increase in the cost of short-term borrowings which is primarily due to the depreciation of the national currency, the increase in rates of return on medium-and long-term government securities is y due to negative expectations of the banks about future market conditions. It says if the current macroeconomic situation keeps on, the rates of return are likely to continue growing as well. -0-