Sharp growth of activity took place on Armenian interbank market

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.