Friday, January 16 2015 19:15
On Jan 12-16 interbank forex market saw $56 mln transactions, with no transactions registered at NASDAQ OMX Armenia
ArmInfo. On Jan 12-16 interbank forex market saw $56 mln transactions, with no transactions registered at NASDAQ OMX Armenia.
The press service of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) has told ArmInfo that no forex operations were carried out at NASDAQ OMX Armenia on Jan 12-16. Over the same period, the interbank forex market saw purchase and sale operations worth $56 mln at the average exchange rate of 477.80 AMD/$1.
The source says that on Jan 12-16, in the intrabank forex market (operations with customers), the banks bought $103.6 mln at the average exchange rate of 475.03 AMD/$1 and sold $162.5 mln at the average exchange rate of 475.03 AMD/$1. In the intrabank forex market, the banks also bought 7.4 mln EUR at the average rate of 561.68 AMD/1EUR and sold 16.5 mln EUR at the average rate of 574.57 AMD/1EUR. In the meantime, the banks bought 812.5 mln RUR at the average rate of 7.13 AMD/1RUR and sold 140.9 mln RUR at the average rate of 7.73 AMD/1RUR.
From Dec 22, 2014, till Jan 11, 2015, the Armenian banks provided AMD loans worth 49.8 bln AMD and USD loans worth $72.2 mln.
To recall, over the last months of 2014, the forex market of Armenia experienced sharp growth in the exchange rate - over 570 AMD/1USD.
According to the CBA's statement dated 8 December 2014, on 8 December, the Central Bank of Armenia launched daily interventions to restore the balance in the exchange market and the soften currency fluctuations. Since the launch of its daily interventions - from Dec 8 through Dec 27 - the CB sold on the interbank forex market a total of $54.7mln: $6mln a day Dec 8-12, $4mln a day Dec 15-17, $1.7mln Dec 20, $1mln Dec 22, and $2mln Dec 23-27. During this period the average rate first rose from 456.63 AMD to 570.58 AMD per 1 USD, then dropped to 446.76 AMD/1 USD on Dec 20. On Dec 22 it started rising again and made up 468.08 AMD/1 USD on Dec 27. The cut-off price rose from 455 to 567.65 AMD/$1, then dropped to 445 AMD/$1 on Dec 20, but by Dec 27 it rose to 467.25 AMD/$1. Along with this, on Dec 17, the CB toughened the forex reserve ratio from 12% to 24%, and the banks place the "reserve" funds at the CB entirely in terms of Armenian dram. On Dec 3, the CB raised the Lombard repo rates from 10.25 to 21%. On Dec 23, the CB raised the refinancing rate from 6.75 to 8.5%. Along with this, the forex reserve ratio was decreased to 20% and the Lombard repo rate was also decreased to 20%. To satisfy the banks' demand for USD, the CBA introduced long-term (3-6 months) forex swaps in early December.
To note, from Oct through Dec 17, 2014, AMD dropped against USD by 45%, Dec 18-20 it grew by 25%. On Dec 22 it started dropping again. On Dec 30, 2014, the rate was 474 AMD against 1 USD, 583 AMD against 1 EUR, 8.5 AMD against 1 RUR. For comparison it should be noted that on Dec 20 the rates were 455 AMD, 555 AMD and 7.8 AMD, respectively, versus 570 AMD, 712 AMD and 8.6 AMD, respectively, on Dec 17. At NASDAQ OMX Armenia, foreign exchange operations amounted to $744.5 million drams in 2014 with the exchange rate growing from 407.14 to 560 AMD/1 USD (on Dec 17), then dropping to 470 AMD/1USD on Dec 27. The transactions in March 2014 amounted to $104 mln, in November - nearly $117 million, in December - $13.6 mln. As of Jan 16, 2015, in the retail currency market the AMD/USD exchange rate made up 478 AMD/$1, AMD/EUR exchange rate - 563 AMD/1EUR, and AMD/RUR exchange rate - 7.5 AMD/1RUR.
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