Georgia, Tbilisi, May 27 / Trend, N. Kirtshaklia /
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) decided to keep its main policy rate (the refinancing rate) unchanged at 8 percent, NBG told Trend on Friday.
Annual inflation reached 13.5 percent in April 2011, 11.8 percent of which was due to the increase in food prices. Annual core inflation (excluding food and fuel prices) has been declining in the recent months and was below 2 percent in April. Annual inflation in the service sector is still low at 1.3 percent.
According to information, the inflation will keep decreasing and will be around 8 percent by the end of the year.
The loan activity is in accordance with the expected growth rate of the economy; the risk of possible demand driven inflation is low, NBG believes.
The next meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee will take place on June 22, 2011.