ArmInfo. The active transactions on the interbank forex market (2-fold growth in transactions for the second week running) along with the increase in USD sales on the intrabank market kept the AMD positions against USD at 475 AMD/$1 in early September. In the meantime, the EUR purchase on the intrabank market grew, with AMD appreciating against EUR from 536 AMD to 531 AMD/1EUR.
The interest in Russian ruble transactions dropped, with AMD/RUR exchange rate standing at 7.3 AMD/1RUR. Since the beginning of the year the foreign exchange market showed signs of life rarely making one at a time transaction between March and May: $100 thousand in March, $2.950 mln in April and $800 thousand in May, after which it was passive. In H1, Central Bank bought USD on the foreign exchange market in June ($50.2 mln) and April ($2.4 mln) and sold in January and February ($53.1 mln and $41.5mln, respectively). As a result, in Jan-Aug 2016, AMD appreciated against EUR from 482 to 475 AMD/$1, depreciating against EUR from 529 to 530 AMD/1EUR, and against RUR from 6.9 to 7.3 AMD/1RUR. In early Sept 2016, AMD retained its positions against USD and RUR, depreciating against EUR to 531 AMD/1EUR.
The press office of the Central Bank of Armenia has told ArmInfo that the daily transactions on the interbank forex market grew on August 29-September 2. The highest amount was registered on Thursday - $6.8mln, and the smallest amount was fixed on Monday - $700,000. From August 29 to September 2, the total amount of transactions on the intrabank forex market was $14.8mln (versus $8.3 mln a week before), forming an average AMD/USD exchange rate at 474.83 AMD/1USD (versus the previous 474.95 AMD/1USD). The source says that from August 29 to September 2, the USD purchase transactions on the intrabank market increased by 5.5% (versus 22% decline a week before). The EUR purchase grew by 25% (versus 5% decline a week before). USD sales increased by 11.4% (versus 14% rise a week before), while EUR sales dropped by 14% (versus 40% growth a week before). RUR purchase dropped by 7% (versus 7.7% decline a week before), and RUR sales declined by 4% (versus 31% rise a week before). A total of $77.2 mln was purchased at the average exchange rate of 473.88 AMD/$1, 6.9 mln EUR was bought at 527.30 AMD/1EUR, and 1.1 bln RUR was bought at 7.25 AMD/1RUR, while $87.96 mln was sold at 475.40 Amd/$1, 12.1 mln EUR - at 532.96 AMD/1EUR, and 472.2 mln RUR - at 7.35 AMD/1RUR.
During the previous week (August 22-27), the Armenian banks provided AMD loans worth 37.3 bln and USD loans worth $53.7 mln. As compared with the previous week, USD loans grew by 67.8%, amid 13.3% decline of the ones in terms of AMD. A week before (August 15-20), the dynamics was as follows: AMD loans grew by 34%, while the ones in terms of USD declined by 20%. To recall, in 2015, on the retail foreign exchange market of Armenia AMD weakened against USD from 477 to 482 AMD/$1 on average and strengthened against EUR from 571.5 to 529 AMD/1EUR and against Russian ruble from 8.2 to 6.9 AMD/1 RUR. Between December 14 and 28, the Central Bank made almost daily interventions. AMD depreciated amid decline of foreign trade turnover (by 20.6%), while import dropped more significantly (by 26.5%) than export (by 3.9%) as well as the decline in transfer inflow to Armenia more than by 30%, and this happened in conditions of low buying capacity of the population and low economic activity in the country. Since early 2016, AMD started depreciating again on the retail foreign exchange market of Armenia to 496AMD/$1, however since March it strengthened and stood at 482 AMD/1USD by March 25. Later, AMD started revaluating again since mid-April. By April 29, AMD appreciated against USD to 479 AMD/$1 and this trend continued in May. By May 31, AMD appreciated against USD to 478 AMD/$1, and against EUR to 532 AMD/1EUR, at the same time depreciating against RUR to 7.3 AMD/1RUR. The first half of June AMD demonstrated moderate depreciation, followed by appreciation: thus by June 30 the AMD stood at 477 AMD/$1, 529 AMD/1EUR, and 7.4 AMD/1 RUR. In July AMD was still at 477 against USD, depreciating against EUR to 532 AMD/1EUR and appreciating against Russian ruble to 7.1 AMD/1RUR. By 31 August, AMD revaluated to 475 AMD/$1 and stood at this level in early September.
