YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 4, NOYAN TAPAN. Issues related to inflation control in Armenia and Russia, the appreciation of the Armenian dram and the Russian ruble, response of the real sector, particularly exporters to this appreciation, etc. were discussed during the meeting of Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) Tigran Sargsian and Chairman of the RF Central Bank Sergei Ignatyev in Yerevan on November 3. The chairmen of the central banks of the two countries stated this at a joint press conference on the same day. In S. Ignatyev's opinion, the CBA "has achieved great success" in controlling inflation, as Armenia's "microeconomic indices are very high, while the inflation is quite low - much lower than in Russia." In his words, under conditions when the nominal and real values of the national currency strengthen, non-tradable sectors (e.g. construction) grow at a higher rate and difficulties arise with the development of the processing industry. "This problem is inevitable: the indicated processes should be watched closely, with some corrections being made in the macroeconomic policy. Nevertheless, the real sectors of the economies of Armenia and Russia adapt to this process quite rapidly and effectivel," S. Ignatyev said. In his words, in a few years Russia will be ready to transfer to inflation targeting and a floating exchange rate of the ruble, which Armenia did in 2006. S. Ignatyev noted that Russia cannot now use the inflation targeting policy because of the considerable impact of oil prices on the inflation.

---