REFUSAL OF CB TO INTERFERE IN OPERATIONS OF THE CURRENCY MARKET HAS RESULTED IN SHARP REDUCTION IN AMOUNT OF USD STOCK EXCHANGE TRANSACTIONS
ArmInfo
2009-03-03 18:33:00
ArmInfo. $360mln were sold on the Armenian stock exchange in 2008,
the chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia Artur Javadyan said during
a press-conference today. Exactly as much currency was bought in
2007. The money was spent on the conversion of people’s AMD deposits
into USD deposits. Only small part of this sum was spent on import.
Today, the gross foreign reserve of Armenia total $1.2bln.
Experts say that in 2007 the average amount of USD transaction was
$7mln with the average exchange rate being 305-308 AMD/1 USD. In
Dec the index grew to $20mln-25mln due to the CB’s intervention. On
Mar 2 2009 the amount of USD deals totalled $31mln with the average
exchange rate being 305 AMD/1 USD.
Today’s 30% jump in the exchange rate was the result of the CB’s
decision to stop its intervention on the currency market since it was
already becoming dangerous. As a result the amount of USD transactions
decreased to $3.420mln while the exchange rate grew to 372.11 AMD/1
USD. Experts forecast almost no USD transactions in the coming 2-3
days due to uncertainty on the market.
Meanwhile, diplomatic sources from Moscow have told ArmInfo that while
granting $500mln stabilization credit to Armenia Russia demanded that
the Armenian authorities stop artificially curbing AMD rate. Experts
believe that the decision to stop this policy was aimed at avoiding
social and internal political tensions.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
