YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 26, ARMENPRESS. The IMF predicts 4.5% economic growth for Armenia in 2019. The impact of the external environment was also an important factor for the prediction, ARMENPRESS reports Head of International Monetary Fund Armenia Mission Hossein Samiei said in a press conference.

“We have predicted 4.5% growth for Armenia’s economy in 2019. This prediction is based on 3-4 factors. The first of them is the potential for growth, or the so-called the potential growth that reflects the capacity of the economy for growth. In our opinion, it’s 4.5% in Armenia”, the Head of the Armenia Mission said.

According to him, the second factor is that the impact of the external environment can be quite serious for small open economies. According to the IMF, this year the external environment will be less favorable this year. “It will be mainly conditioned by the copper price and remittances that have quite an important role in the economic growth of Armenia”,  Hossein Samiei said.

He noted that Armenia’s economic growth in 2017 was significantly higher compared to the prediction of the potential growth of the IMF. In 2018 it was higher as well.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan