CENTRAL BANK TO OPEN BRANCH IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH
Armenpress
Nov 02 2006
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 2, ARMENPRESS: Central bank governor Tigran Sarkisian
said it has got down to building a branch in the town of Shushi in
Nagorno-Karabakh.
He said as Armenian national currency-Dram- is used by Nagorno-Karabakh
as its sole legal and official means of payment the Armenian government
and the Central bank have decided to build an independent structure
in Karabakh to store part of reserves to reduce on one hand collection
expenses and to ensure security on the other hand.
According to a Central bank study, every person arriving in Armenia
brings with himself or herself on average $8,700. If applied to 450,000
people who arrive in Armenia annually it will appear that about $3.5
billion in cash are brought to this country in 12 months.
Central bank governor Tigran Sarkisian cited these figures as one
of the reasons behind a dramatic decline of US Dollar value over
Armenian Dram. He said based on some other studies in the financial
market the balance between export and import of US Dollars is $400
million positive.
However, Sarkisian admitted that the studies of the Central bank
were insufficient to offer a complete picture of how things stand on
the local financial market, particularly, of the exact amount of US
Dollars brought in and taken out in cash since the law does not set
a limit to the amount of cash Dollars a person can bring in or take
out of Armenia.
He said this liberal legislation must be reviewed towards bringing
it in conformity with international standards. He suggested that a
limit of $10,000 be established for free export and import of cash
US Dollars.