Yerevan/Mediamax/. Chairman of the Central Bank (CB) of Armenia stated that in order to deter inflation and mitigate expectations of Armenian currency devaluation, CB had been toughening the monetary-credit policy since the beginning of the year and was taking up measures on dedollarization.

Mediamax reports that speaking at the traditional pre-New Year reception at CB. Artur Javadyan stated that the tax-budgetary policy of the government, directed at reduction of budget deficit, was also favorable.

“As a result, we managed to reduce inflation by 3.6 percentage points in the first half-year, however the second half-year prepared new challenges for us: the inflation speeds significantly increased since July, reaching 9.6% in November, this time mainly being conditioned by impetuous growth of world prices for foodstuffs (in June-October, their growth made about 20%) and by 17% reduction of agricultural production.

Despite the fact that 6-7 percentage points of the 9.5% inflation (expected following the results of the year) are conditioned by the above-mentioned offer shocks, our efforts will be directed at overcoming those so that they do not move to other segments of the market and do not grow into system inflationary pressures”, CB Chairman stated.