YEREVAN, MARCH 19, NOYAN TAPAN. The composite economic indices calculated by the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) showed a considerable growth in the first quarter of 2007. According to the CBA press service, the business environment index made 120.9%, the economic activity index - 110.4% and the consumer confidence index - 107.4%. The business environment index shows the average assessment of organizations on changes in risks and the general economic state, the economic activity index - the assessment of organizations' expectations about production volumes, production orders and reserves. The consumer confidence index is the mean of assessment on household incomes, expenses and changes in employment, as well as assessment of attitude to current economic conditions. To calculate these indices, every quarter the so-called "balances of responses", whose values range from 0 to 100, are calculated. The value of 50 of a balance means that the state of the given parameter is unchanged, if the value is higher than 50, expevtations are optimistic, if it is lower than 50, expectations are pessimistic. In the first quarter, 801 organizations and 2,961 households were studied by the selective principle. The business environment responses balance made 57.8 against 47.8 in the previous quarter, the economic activity responses balance - 71.2 against 64, and the consumer confidence responses balance - 54 against 50.3 (this is the highest value since early 2005).

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