YEREVAN, September 26 /ARKA/. In its ‘’Asian Development Outlook’’ (September 2024) report, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has revised downwards its inflation forecasts for Armenia for 2024 and 2025, taking into account the price dynamics of the first half of this year.

According to the ADB forecast, inflation in Armenia in 2024 will be 0.8%, down from 3%  in the May forecast, and down to 2.5% for 2025 in the May forecast.

“Deflation persisted during the first 7 months of 2024. At the domestic level, relatively weak government consumption restrained aggregate domestic demand, while external inflationary pressures were mitigated by the appreciation of the currency. Inflation fell by 0.3% in January-July 2024, with food prices falling by 2.7%, offsetting a 2.8% increase in services prices, while prices for other goods remained unchanged. Compared to the same period last year, inflation in July at 1.4% was below the Central Bank of Armenia’s target range of 2.5-5.5%,” the study says. 

It is also indicated that the Central Bank reduced the refinancing rate by 150 basis points in several stages, bringing it to 7.75% by the end of July 2024. 

On September 10, the Board of the Central Bank of Armenia lowered the refinancing rate by 0.25 percentage points, to 7.50%. This was the 11th consecutive reduction in the refinancing rate, starting from June last year, and the sixth since the beginning of the current year. -0-