CENTRAL BANK OF ARMENIA TO INTRODUCE NORM OF GENERAL ORDERS OF EXCHANGE

ARKA
March 15, 2010

YEREVAN, March 15. / ARKA /. Central Bank of Armenia will introduce
the norm of general orders of currency instead of the abolished
special economic standards on the same day.

This was said by the head of the policy of the financial system and
financial stability of the Central Bank of Armenia Vahe Vardanyan.

"On April 26 a special economic standard will be considered null
and void, and instead the second more comprehensive standard will be
accepted including limitations not only for long, but also for short
currency position," he told reporters on Thursday.

In this regard, Vardanyan explained that at the end of the third
quarter of last year, it was decided to implement in Armenia the
special economic standards, which until then had never acted.

According to him, this was done in order to limit the long currency
positions of banks, so that they could not have more assets denominated
in dollars, than the dollar liabilities.

Immediate implementation of the logic of both standards stemmed from
the need to limit the ability of banks to have a long currency position
and the implementation of some speculation in the currency market.

"In our view, this could create negative currency expectations in the
economy. We managed to get a 7% norm for a long position, and then
the meaningless speculative motives turned out to be meaningless and
significantly reduced in the market," he said.

"However, based on the situation, the Central Council may take
appropriate action on mitigation or tightening of the norm," he added.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress