Friday, October 4 2013 19:58
Central Bank: Due to refinancing rate growth in August, interest rates in Armenian financial market rose in first half of August and flattened out later
ArmInfo. The interest rates in the financial market of Armenia grew in the first half of August 2013 due to the 0.5-pct rise in the refinancing rate. The press service of the Central Bank of Armenia has told ArmInfo that in the second half of August the interest rates flattened out.
The source says that in the primary market the average yield of government bonds with a maturity of up to 1 year was 8.8% (down 0.1 pct points in August). In the interbank market the average monthly repo rate made up 8.25% by late August 2013 (down 0.3 pct points in August).
In August 2013 0.8% AMD revaluation against USD was fixed and the AMD/USD exchange rate was 407.3 AMD/$1. 0.8% AMD devaluation against EUR was fixed and the AMD/EUR exchange rate was 542.2 AMD/1EUR. 1.8% AMD revaluation against RUR was fixed and the AMD/RUR exchange rate was 12.3 AMD/1RUR.
To recall, on 12 April 2011 the CBA reduced the refinancing rate from 8.5% to 8% and retained it at the same level till 13 Aug 2013, when it was again raised to 8.5% and has been retained at this level so far. The CBA's decision in August was conditioned by the restraint of inflationary expectations and dampening of the secondary impact from the rise in prices of energy resources. On August 13 the CBA Council revised the interest rate of deposits, having raised it from 6.5% to 7%. At the same time, the CBA retained the lombard repo rate at 10%.