Armenia economy to grow by 3.7% this year, IMF says

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Armenian economy is forecast to grow at a 3.7% clip this year, the same as in 2015, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a fresh report on Friday, October 21.

As RFE/RL reports, the IMF has warned of weak prospects for economic growth in Central Asia and the Caucasus region and has called for reforms to help post-Soviet economies.

The IMF forecast that economic growth in the two regions this year will be just 1.3% . The estimate is the lowest for the areas since 1998.

The report said the slowdown is mainly because of low commodity prices that are hurting energy exporting countries like Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Those economies are expected to grow at an overall rate of 1%in 2016.

The outlook is brighter for Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, whose economies are forecast to grow at a 3.7% clilp this year, the same as in 2015.

The IMF has called in the report for bold monetary, financial, and structural reforms in the region's countries to help spur growth. The Fund is predicting a growth rate for the two regions to be 2.6$ in 2017.