YEREVAN, September 23. /ARKA/. The board of the Central Bank of Armenia has left the benchmark refinancing rate at 6.75%, the central bank’s press office reported on Tuesday.

In its report, the board says that inflation was recorded at 0.7% in August against 0.3% of the same month a year earlier. As a result, 12-month inflation rose slightly reaching 0.8% in late August.

The central bank’s board says that inflation environment will keep expanding in the coming months and will stand within the projected frames in the first half of 2015.

Outside demand is recovering slowly as deflation pressures are seen at commodity and raw material markets impacted by the growing demand. Especially markets’ energy carriers and wheat segments will undergo deflation pressures.

Nevertheless, the board placed it on record that considerable uncertainly connected with economic prospects in partner countries and commodities and raw materials markets still remains under impacts of geopolitical developments outside the country.

Economic activity showed some rally in the second quarter of 2014, but economic growth is still slow.

Despite low demand in both inside and outside economies, the central bank’s board finds the consistent relaxation of monetary conditions is sufficient for having gross demand expanded and inflation paces restored under the expected in the second half of 2014 expansion of the tax and budgetary policy and introduction of obligatory marking for particular goods.

As a result, the 12-month inflation will gradually rise in the forth quarter of this year and in the first quarter of 2015 coming close to the projected indicator.

The latest change in the refinancing rate was made on August 12, 2014. The central bank then lowered it by 0.25 percentage points to 6.75%.

In the 2014 government budget, inflation is projected at 4% (±1.5%) and GDP growth at 5.2%. --0--