Armenia's Central Bank sold banks $1mln out of offered $2mln on Monday, Dec 22.
The press service of the CB reports that the average
AMD/USD exchange rate on the interbank forex market was 451.89 AMD/1 USD. On
NASDAQ OMX Armenia the selling rate was 458.89 AMD/1 USD, the buying rate
449.90 AMD/1 USD with no transactions were carried out.
Since starting its daily intervention – from Dec 8
till Dec 22 – the CB has sold on the interbank forex market a total of
$44.7mln: $6mln a day Dec 8-12, $4mln a day Dec 15-17, $1.7mln Dec 20 and $1mln
on Dec 22. During this period the average rate first rose from 456.63 AMD до 570.58 AMD
per 1 USD, then dropped fro 446.76 AMD/1 USD and rose again to 451.89 AMD/1 USD
From Oct till Dec 17 AMD dropped against USD by 45%,
Dec 18-20 it grew by 25%. On Monday it was 460 AMD against 1 USD, 560 AMD
against 1 EUR, 8.25 AMD against RUR. On Dec 20 the rates were 455 AMD, 555 AMD
and 7.8 AMD, respectively. On Dec 17
570 AMD, 712 AMD and 8.6 AMD, respectively.
According to the CBA's statement dated 8 December
2014, on 8 December, the Central Bank of Armenia launched daily interventions
to restore the balance in the exchange market and the soften currency
fluctuations. The interventions will
last till the end of 2014. The CBA will continue announcing the ceiling of
daily sale amounts till the end of the year to normalize the situation in the
exchange market of Armenia. According to the source, the CB will be publishing
foreign exchange operations to ensure transparency in the financial market of
Armenia. The daily intervention amounts
will be reduced gradually until the national currency exchange rate is balanced.
In particular, during the first week (8- 12 December) the daily interventions
will be $6 mln. Afterwards, the daily
interventions will gradually be reduced depending on demand and will be brought
to zero by the end of the year.
On Dec 22 (at 4:30 pm) AMD/USD buying/selling rates
made up 4560/463 AMD/1 USD, AMD/EUR rates 545/575 AMD/1 EUR, AMD/RUR rates
7.85/8.65 AMD/1 RUR. At NASDAQ OMX Armenia, from June through December 19,
foreign exchange operations amounted to $397.150 million drams with the
exchange rate growing from 407.14 to 560 AMD/1 USD and then dropping to 442.44
AMD/1USD. The transactions in November alone totaled nearly $117 million
drams. On 1-5 Dec, interbank market of
foreign exchange operations registered a record-breaking indicator - $59.3
million.