YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 4, NOYAN TAPAN. At the November 4 sitting, the Board of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) left the refinancing rate unchanged, fixing it at 7.75%. According to the CBA PR Service, 0.7% inflation was recorded in October on September 2008, as a result of which the 12-month inflation declined by 2.7 percentage points to 8.6%. The CBA Board stated that in the third quarter of 2008, the developments in the external and domestic environments were mainly in line with the assessments given at the previous sitting on the issue of rates. In October, the inflationary pressures from the external environment were affected by the decline of global demand and continued to weaken, being expressed in further fall of international non-food commodity prices. The recent months' tendency of external inflationary pressures to weaken have become apparent, although not fully, in the domestic market of Armenia. Taking into account the considerable fluctuations of prices in commodity markets under conditions of the international financial crisis, the duration of the crisis and the uncertainty of time needed to overcome its consequences, as well as the slow process of inflation specification in the domestic market, the CBA Board considers it expedient to keep the refinancing rate at the same level.

---