YERVAN, JULY 3, ARMENPRESS. The Council of the Central Bank left unchanged the interest rate of refinancing during the session on June 23, determining it at 10.5 percent and the rates of Lombard repo and funds allocated by the Central Bank were fixed at 12 and 9 percent respectively.

As “Armenpress” was informed from the Public Relations Service of the Central Bank, the council discussed the developments in the financial market, which had a tendency of decrease during the period between May and June. As a result, the monthly average interest rate oninterbank repo decreased by one percentage point as of June 16, compared with the same period of the previous month, making it 10.6 percent, the average interest rate of government bunds with up to 1 year grace period in the primary market decreased by 0.5 percentage point, fixing it at about 12.4 percent.

The exchange rate remained relatively stable during the past two months of the second quarter in the currency market of the Republic of Armenia. At the same time, the Council of the Central Bank assessed that the direct and indirect consequences of the increase in the electricity tariff starting from August will constitute nearly 1.3 percentage points on annual inflation.

The index of economic activity increased by 2.7 percent during the previous five months of 2015, which is mainly conditioned by growth in agricultural and industrial spheres.

In the external environment the tendency of slow global economic growth continued. Here, in the international market of food products deflationary environment was preserved, while in the international market of the main raw products the oil price was higher than it was expected to be, conditioned with high seasonal oil demand, reduction of the US inventories as well as with the expectations of decrease in demand. Nevertheless, the Council of the Central Bank does not expect inflation caused by external environment.

The Council reports that the preservation of the microeconomic stability achieved at the beginning of the year continues to promote the recovery of economic activity.