YEREVAN, December 6. /ARKA/. The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) Board said today it has left its benchmark refinancing rate unchanged at 8%.

In a press release the CBA said inflation slowed in November as the cost of food and other consumer goods eased. Consumer prices rose to 4.8 percent from a year earlier compared with 5.7 percent in October Prices advanced 1.2 percent from the previous month.

The Board stated also the absence of external inflationary pressures saying the anticipated global economic slowdown will not have a tangible impact on food and raw commodities prices. It said this was is in line with the basic forecasts about global economic trends as spelled out in the Central Bank’s money and credit policy for the 4th quarter of 2011.

The Central Bank said it does not expect inflation risks to stem from domestic economy and believes that the recorded and anticipated developments at labor market and aggregate demand will have not a significant impact on the inflationary environment.

The Central Bank believes that Armenia's economy is developing in line with anticipated trends fixed in the monetary policy program for 2011 and the 12-month inflation rate is likely to be within the projected 4% (± 1.5%) corridor. The last time the Central Bank changed the refinancing rate was on September 6, 2011, when it reduced it from 8.5% to 8%. –0--