YEREVAN, April 8. /ARKA/. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) expects the average annual inflation in Armenia to accelerate to at least 9% in 2022 and then decrease to 7.5% in 2023, assuming there will be no such price hikes on the domestic market and international inflationary pressure will abate, ADB said in its April release of the Asian Development Outlook report.

Factors such as soaring global commodity prices, higher prices of imported consumer goods, currency depreciation, as well as rising electricity rates from February 2022 and natural gas prices from April 2022 are also cited as factors to push inflation up.

The report's authors note that in 2022, monetary policy is expected to tighten further to curb inflation, and in 2023, the policy will be aimed at supporting growth if inflation slows.

Armenian government’s growth projection for 2022 is 7%, and inflation is set at 4% (± 1.5%). The Central Bank had earlier revised down its growth projection from 5.3% to 1.6% citing the problems triggered by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

According to the National Statistical Committee (NSC), in late February 2022 the 12-month inflation was 6.5%.

On March 15 Armenia's Central Bank's Board raised the refinancing rate by 1.25 percentage points, setting it at 9.25%. -0-