Tuesday, December 9 2014

On December 9, the Central Bank of
Armenia (CBA) sold $6 million to the participating banks at the average
exchange rate of 458.31 AMD/1 USD in the course of intervention in the
interbank currency market. The CBA press service has told ArmInfo that the
cut-off price was 457.57 AMD/1 USD.  

 

Currency market experts say that despite the small
interventions of the CBA, the AMD devaluation has slowed down to some extent. However,
to restore the balance in the currency market, not only daily but also more
serious interventions are needed.  

 

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. The goal is to reduce the CB's
influence on formation of the national currency exchange rate.

 

On December 9, in the retail market of Armenia the
AMD/USD exchange rate exceeded 461 AMD/1USD with over13% devaluation for the
last 2.5 months. As of 4:40 pm, the exchange rates at swap bodies were as
follows:  460/463 AMD/1 USD, 564/570
AMD/1 EUR, 8.45/8.50 AMD/1 RUR.  The
optimal rates at the banks of Armenia were as follows: USD was purchased for
456 AMD (ceiling), EUR - 561 AMD, RUR - 8.42 AMD. The lowest rates of sale were
as follows: 458 AMD/1 USD, 569 AMD/1 EUR, 8.54 AMD/1 RUR. At NASDAQ OMX
Armenia, from June through December 9, foreign exchange operations amounted to
$396.5 million drams with the exchange rating growing from 407.14 - 438.62
AMD/1 USD. No transactions were registered after December 1. The transactions
in November alone totaled nearly $117 million drams. Last week (1-5 Dec),
interbank market of foreign exchange operations registered a record-breaking
indicator - $59.3 million, which resulted in a 442.42 AMD/1USD exchange rate. In
this light, the stock exchange started the week with transactions in the amount
of $3.5 million (1 Dec) with no deals for the following days.