Yerevan /Mediamax/. The Central Bank of Armenia increased today the refinancing rate for 0.25 percentage points, establishing it at the level of 6.25%.

As Mediamax was told in the press service of the Central Bank, the given decision was made by the CB Board today during its session.

In February 2008, as compared to January of 2007, inflation at the volume of 1.1% was registered. The inflation index in the course of the year made 7.5%, which is 0.9 percentage points higher, as compared to the level, marked in the end of 2007.

The CB Board noted that the deepening of inflationary pressures in the world markets, forecasted earlier, starts showing and, most likely, will be preserved in the nearest future.

The CB Board believes that the existing inflationary pressures are conditioned mainly by the external influence and their neutralization by means of monetary-credit tools is not possible. In these conditions the gradual toughening of monetary-credit policy is directed to mitigation of secondary influences of the marked phenomena and the inflationary expectations, conditioned by them.