In 2024, we will have a certain slowdown in economic growth; we expect economic growth of around 6 percent. Armen Nurbekyan, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA), stated this in an interview with the Public Television of Armenia.

"But that 6 percent is a very high economic growth if we consider that in 2022 we [i.e. Armenia] had 12.6 percent economic growth, and in 2023 we will have about 8 percent economic growth. The 6 percent economic growth on such high bases is an even more impressive number," he added.

As for inflation in Armenia, according to the CBA deputy governor, they predict that this inflation will gradually return to its target.

"We expect around 3.1 percent inflation at the end of 2024, and already in 2025 we will be close to the 4 percent target,” he said.

“There are two main directions of scenarios. The first scenario is that the inflationary environment will remain mild, and this will be due to the fact that we will have easing pressures on the labor market. You know that we have an influx [of workforce] from India, we have forcibly displaced [Armenian] persons from Nagorno-Karabakh who must be integrated into Armenia’s labor market. In fact, it will affect wages, it will have a positive effect on the potential of our economy. In this case, we will have a much lower inflation scenario and high economic growth.

"But there is also another scenario, according to which inflationary expectations will be maintained to a certain extent because we have a salary increase of more than 10 percent, which is high; on the other hand, we have high inflation in the service sector.

“When we look at the latest inflation expectations polls, it really seems that both scenarios have a place because uncertainties have increased. The ratio of people expecting high inflation and the ratio of people expecting low inflation both decreased, but uncertainties increased. Since we have reduced the interest rates, we consider the inflationary scenarios to be less likely at this time," Nurbekyan emphasized.

According to him, the way to reduce inflation is to react in time.

"When the inflation was still below our target, we reacted quickly because we expected that the inflation would rise. This enabled us to start the lowering early. This is very important because it means we have ensured price stability without penalizing economic growth. The best evidence of this is the economic growth indicator," said the deputy governor of the Central Bank of Armenia.