YEREVAN, February 16. /ARKA/. The Central Bank of Armenia is likely to lower the refinancing rate, according to Haykakan Zhamanak.

The central bank’s board members will gather today to discuss reasons to do this.

The regulator changed the rate on December 22, 2015 lowering it from 9.75% to 8.75%.

According to the newspaper, the decrease of the refinancing rate is theoretically to drive interest rates on commercial banks’ loans for individuals and corporate clients down.

This became possible thanks to a slight deflation in last two months, and a sharper decrease in prices would give grounds for a more significant rate lowering.

However, this is impossible in our country because of high monopolization and the lack of competition.

That is why unprecedented fall in world prices have absolutely no impacts on things in Armenia, and therefore the Armenian regulator has to be cautious in lowering the rate. --0----