The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed yesterday the fourth review of Armenia’s performance under a three-year arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), which enabled Armenia to receive the release of USD 21.24 million (about SDR 15.65 million).

IMF website informed that this would bring Armenia’s total disbursements under the arrangement to USD 90.28 million (SDR 66.52 million).

The extended arrangement for USD 111.57 million (SDR 82.21 million) between Armenia and IMF was approved in March 2014.

IMF First Deputy Managing Director David Lipton considered Armenia’s program performance to be satisfactory.

“Program performance has been broadly satisfactory despite continued adverse external developments that have contributed to subdued domestic demand, weak revenues, and deflationary conditions. Looking forward, the outlook remains challenging, calling for sustained policy efforts to secure macroeconomic and financial stability and to foster sustainable and inclusive growth,” he noted.

According to David Lipton, Armenian authorities remained committed to fiscal consolidation and debt sustainability, as embodied in their fiscal rule, which aimed to ensure that debt remained below 60% of GDP over the medium term.

At the same time IMF representative gave positive feedback for Armenian Central Bank’s monetary policy easing over the past year, which in his opinion helped reduce key market interest rates and supported a nascent recovery in bank lending.

According to him, Central Bank’s decision to enforce the new minimum capital requirements would help strengthen financial stability.

“Pursuing further structural reforms remains essential for fostering sustainable and inclusive growth. Strengthening domestic competition and regulatory reforms are pivotal to creating a more broad-based, private sector-led economy. In this context, the authorities’ planned amendments to the law for enhancing economic competition protection are an important step,” he stressed.

IMF projected economic growth of 2.4-2.5% for Armenia in 2016, and 2.7% and 3% in 2017 and 2018 respectively.