‘Guided by sound macroeconomic policies amid significant global and regional challenges, Armenia is on course to achieve growth of about 11 percent in 2022, in part driven by large inflows of external income, capital, and labor into the country,’ Iva Petrova, IMF Mission Chief for Armenia, said in a statement after visiting Yerevan from September 26 to October 6 to discuss a three-year economic program supported by an IMF precautionary Stand-By Arrangement.
According to IMF, fiscal overperformance and dram appreciation have contributed to a significant decline in public debt, which is expected to drop to 51 percent of GDP this year from 60.3 percent of GDP in 2021.
‘While inflation has temporarily increased on the back of supply and demand shocks, the Central Bank of Armenia has proactively raised the policy rate by 625 basis points since December 2020, aiming to steer inflation toward its medium-term target of 4 percent. International reserves have risen, while the dram has appreciated strongly in the past few months. Important structural reforms have taken place in the areas of public financial management, revenue administration, the inflation targeting framework, the financial sector, and governance,’ the IMF said.
The IMF said also on Wednesday that its team and the Armenian authorities have reached a staff-level agreement on a precautionary Stand-By Arrangement for SDR 128.8 million (about $165.6 million) to support the government’s economic program to preserve macroeconomic, fiscal, and financial stability, and to advance reforms to promote inclusive growth.
The agreement is subject to approval by the IMF Executive Board, which is expected to consider it in December 2022.
Armenia's economic activity in the first 9 months of 2022 grew by 14.1% compared to the same period of 2021, according to the numbers, released by the National Statistical Committee (NSC) Armenian government’s initial growth projection for 2022 is 7%, and the inflation is set at 4% (± 1.5%), ARKA reports.
