Armenian central bank revises downward its growth forecast for 2022 to 1.6%

YEREVAN, March 15. /ARKA/. Armenia’s Central Bank has revised downward its 2022 GDP growth forecast from 5.3% to 1.6%, the Central Bank chairman Martin Galstyan told ARKA news agency today.

“The impact of sanctions slapped on Russia by the West will significantly slow down Armenia’s economic growth due to a drop in industrial output,” he said at a press conference on Tuesday.

According to Galstyan, Armenia’s industrial output was expected to grow by 1.6% in 2022, but due to problems in the mining industry, this sector is expected to decline by 4.7%.

“A certain decline is also being observed in the construction sector. The only area which is going to show better results than our forecasts is the agricultural sector,” he said.

The government’s growth projection for 2022 is 7%, and the inflation is set at 4% (± 1.5%). In its latest Global Economic Prospects, January 2022, the World Bank said it expected the Armenian economy to grow in 2022 by 4.8% and by 5.4% in 2023.

The IMF predicted last December that the Armenian economy would grow by 5.3% in 2022 and by 5% in 2023.

The EBRD, in its Regional Economic Outlook report for November last year, predicted that the Armenian economy in 2022 will expand by 5.3%. -0-