YEREVAN, June 10. / ARKA /. The chairman of Armenia’s Central Bank, Artur Javadyan, told the parliament today that the rise in the prices of gas and electricity to become effective from July 7 will push the inflation rate by 2.5%.

He said this figure is based upon the findings of a study conducted by the Central Bank. He added also that higher prices for gas and electricity will affect also the monetary policy.

In his words, these changes in view the Central Bank and the government should consider new principles of monetary policy. He argued that such circumstances usually lead to enforcement of tighter monetary policy, but added however, it was too early to speak about a possible increase in the key refinancing rate.

"The main objective of the Central Bank is to ensure price stability,’ he said.

The government’s projection of inflation for this year is 4 + -1.5%. In January-April it was 3.2%.
Last week Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) raised formally the gas price for households from 132 drams to 156 drams (38 U.S. cents) per cubic meter. It also authorized an almost 27 percent surge in the domestic electricity tariff effective from July 7.

On May 14 Armenia’s Russian-controlled ArmRosGazprom (ARG) national gas distribution company asked the regulatory body to allow it to charge individual customers 221 drams per cubic meter. The company argued that Russia’s Gazprom monopoly raised the gas price for Armenia by 50 percent to $270 million per thousand cubic meters in April. The Armenian government said afterwards that it will subsidize the new tariff to cut it by 30 percent. ($1 – 413.06 drams). -0-