Saturday, December 27 2014

On Dec
27, Armenia's Central Bank sold banks $2mln, i.e. the total amount offered. The
press service of the CB reports that the average AMD/USD exchange rate on the
interbank forex market rose to 468.08 AMD/1 USD, with the cut-off price rising
to 467.25 AMD/1USD. The transactions at NASDAQ OMX Armenia totaled $400 thsd at
the exchange rate of 470 AMD/$1.

 

Since the launch of its daily interventions - from Dec
8 through Dec 27 - the CB has sold on the interbank forex market a total of
$54.7mln: $6mln a day Dec 8-12, $4mln a day Dec 15-17, $1.7mln Dec 20, $1mln
Dec 22, and $2mln Dec 23-27. During this period the average rate first rose
from 456.63 AMD to 570.58 AMD per 1 USD, then dropped to 446.76 AMD/1 USD on
Dec 20. On Dec 22 it started rising again and made up 468.08 AMD/1 USD on Dec
27. The cut-off price rose from 455 to 567.65 AMD/$1, then dropped to 445
AMD/$1 on Dec 20, but by Dec 27 it rose to 467.25 AMD/$1.

 

From Oct through Dec 17 AMD dropped against USD by
45%, Dec 18-20 it grew by 25%. On Dec 22 it started dropping again. On Dec 27,
at 4:00 pm, the rate was 470 AMD against 1 USD, 574 AMD against 1 EUR, 8.7 AMD
against RUR. On Dec 20 the rates were 455 AMD, 555 AMD and 7.8 AMD,
respectively, versus 570 AMD, 712 AMD and 8.6 AMD, respectively, on Dec 17.

 

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 were $6 mln. Afterwards, the daily interventions were gradually
reduced to 4 mln USD and then 2 mln USD and they will be brought to zero by the
end of the year. Along with this, on Dec 17, the CB toughened the forex reserve
ratio from 12% to 24%, and the banks place the "reserve" funds at the
CB entirely in terms of Armenian dram. On Dec 3, the CB raised the Lombard repo
rates from 10.25 to 21%. On Dec 23, the CB raised the refinancing rate from
6.75 to 8.5%. Along with this, the forex reserve ratio was decreased to 20% and
the Lombard repo rate was also decreased to 20%. To satisfy the banks' demand
for USD, the CBA introduced long-term (3-6 months) forex swaps in early
December.

 

On Dec 27 (at 4:00 pm) AMD/USD buying/selling rates at
the swap bodies made up 465/475 AMD/1 USD, AMD/EUR rates - 564/584 AMD/1 EUR,
AMD/RUR rates - 8.3/9.1 AMD/1 RUR. At NASDAQ OMX Armenia, from June through
December 27, foreign exchange operations amounted to $406.6 million drams with
the exchange rate growing from 407.14 to 560 AMD/1 USD, then dropping to 442.44
AMD/1USD and rising to 470 AMD/1USD on Dec 27. The transactions in November
alone totaled nearly $117 million drams. On 1-5 Dec, the interbank market of
foreign exchange operations registered a record-breaking indicator - $59.3
million.