FORMER SPEAKER: NEITHER ARMENIAN ECONOMY NOR POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT BENEFIT FROM DRAM DEVALUATION

ARKA
March 26, 2009

YEREVAN, March 26. /ARKA/. Neither Armenian economy nor political
environment has taken advantage from devaluation of national currency,
MP Tigran Torosyan, former speaker of Armenian National Assembly said
at a press conference on Thursday.

After the Central Bank of Armenia announced the return to floating
foreign exchange rate policy on March 3, Armenian dram immediately
plunged 66.36 percentage points against the dollar to AMD 372.11
per dollar.

"Such a precipitous fall has undermined confidence in Armenian dram. It
would be better to do it smoother", Torosyan said.

Earlier, Vache Gabruelyan, deputy chairman of the Central Bank of
Armenia, the precipitous twist to floating rate policy was necessary
to remover ground for fear that the national currency might weaken.

In his words, the smooth process would be less effective and more
expensive.

Torosyan thinks that the authorities should have informed everybody
about problems instead of hiding them.

He thinks that Armenian authorities should have support the system,
like other countries’ governments did.

He said he has little optimism about the whole process.

Unlike Torosyan, Armenian Central Bank Chairman Arthur Javadyan,
thinks Armenian banking system is strong enough to stand exchange
rate corrections.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress