16:26, 3 May, 2022

YEREVAN, MAY 3, ARMENPRESS. In terms of supply, there is a progressive growth of foreign currency means in Armenia conditioned by the presence of foreign visitors, which led to some strengthening of the dram, President of the Central Bank Martin Galstyan said during a press conference, commenting on the recent developments in the dollar-dram exchange rate market, particularly the decline of the dollar exchange rate.

He said it’s important to understand the reasons of the behavior of the exchange rate. “We see a situation when we have international visitors in Armenia. There is such a situation in Armenia that the external demand has increased. There is a certain increase in demand for our services, which supposes that our services have become exportable. When these persons spend some money in our resorts or restaurants, this is supposed to be a growth in export, from the perspective of the balance of payments of Armenia. This situation led to the point that we have a progressive growth of foreign currency means in terms of supply to demand, which resulted in some strengthening of the dram”, the CBA President said.

In order to understand how fundamental this phenomenon is, the CBA chief said it’s important to know how long these people are planning to stay in Armenia, how they will behave. As the exchange rate is free-floating in Armenia, Galstyan refused to make assessments when it will be restored or what level it will reach.

As of May 2, the US dollar exchange rate declined 3.61 drams in Armenia, amounting to 449.65 drams.