Չորեքշաբթի, 17 Դեկտեմբերի 2014

On Dec 17, the Central Bank of
Armenia (CBA) sold a total of $4 mln to the participating banks at the average
exchange rate of 570.58 AMD/$1 in the course of daily interventions in the
interbank currency market, with the cut-off price being 567.65 AMD/$1.

 

Since the launch of the daily interventions, i.e. from
Dec 8 through Dec 17, the CBA sold USD 42mln to the participating banks - USD
6mln daily on Dec 8-12 and USD 4mln on Dec 15-17. The CBA press service has
told ArmInfo that over this period the average exchange rate rose from 456.63
to 570.58 AMD/$1 and the cut-off price grew from 455 to 567.65 AMD/1 USD. 

 

On Dec 17, before 2 pm, the average AMD/USD exchange
rate in the retail currency market was 550 AMD/$1, AMD/EUR exchange rate - 715
AMD/1EUR, with the former rising to 570 AMD/$1 and the latter dropping to 712
AMD/1EUR, respectively, by 5 pm. In the meantime, the average AMD/RUR exchange
rate rose from 8.5 to 8.6 AMD/1RUR.

 

At a press conference on Dec 17, CBA Chairman Artur
Javadyan said that the Armenian dram has experienced hyperdevaluation.

 

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 December 17, the AMD devaluation against USD
continued in the retail currency market of Armenia despite the daily
interventions of the CBA. Almost 30% devaluation has been fixed since October. At
the moment (5 pm), the exchange rates at swap bodies are as follows:  560/580 AMD/1 USD, 671/752 AMD/1 EUR, 8/9.2
AMD/1 RUR.  The optimal rates at the
banks of Armenia before 2 pm were as follows: USD was purchased for 550 AMD
(ceiling), EUR - 681 AMD, RUR - 8 AMD. The lowest rates of sale were 548 AMD,
687.5 AMD and 8.16 AMD. At NASDAQ OMX Armenia, from June through December 17,
foreign exchange operations amounted to $396.7 million drams with the exchange
rate growing from 407.14 to 560 AMD/1 USD. Almost no transactions were
registered after December 1 (only 100 thsd USD on Dec 10 and 100 thsd USD on
Dec 17). 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,
which resulted in a 442.42 AMD/1USD exchange rate. In this light, over the
period from 1 to 17 December, the stock exchange registered transactions only
on Dec 1 ($3.5 million) and Dec 10 ($100 thsd) and Dec 17 ($100 thsd), with no
transactions for the rest of the days.