During first ten days of September AMD appreciated against USD to 475 AMD/1USD, but devaluated against EUR and RUR  

ArmInfo. Over the current week (Sept 5-9), on the interbank forex market of Armenia the amount of transactions dropped by 60% after a 2-fold growth during the previous week. In the meantime, the intrabank market saw decline in USD and EUR operations. The AMD/USD exchange rate stood at 475 AMD/$1. AMD depreciated against EUR and RUR to 535 AMD/1EUR and 7.4 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 USD 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 has retained its positions against USD.

The press office of the Central Bank of Armenia has told ArmInfo that on Sept 5-9 the daily transactions on the interbank forex market dropped. The biggest amount of the transactions was fixed on Monday - $2.7 mln and the smallest one was registered on Thursday - $400 thsd. The total amount on the interbank forex market during the specified period was $5.9 mln (versus $14.8 mln a week before), with the average exchange rate being 474.91 AMD/$1 (versus the previous 474.83). In the meantime, on the intrabank market USD purchase fell by 13% on Sept 5-9 (versus 5.5% rise a week before); EUR purchase dropped by 14.3% (versus 25% growth a week before). USD and EUR sales dropped by 9% and 1.7%, respectively, versus 11.4% and 14% growth, respectively, a week before. RUR purchase grew by 2.8% (versus 7% decline a week before), while RUR sales dropped by 0.1% (versus 4% decline a week before). As a result, $67 mln was bought at the average exchange rate 473.78 AMD/$1, 5.9 mln EUR - at 529.35 AMD/1EUR and 1.1 bln RUR - at 7.30 AMD/1RUR. At the same time, $79.2 mln was sold at the average exchange rate of 475.34 AMD/$1, 11.8 mln EUR - at 533.89 AMD/1EUR and 471.7 mln RUR - 7.39 AMD/1RUR.

During the previous week (August 29-September 3), the Armenian banks provided AMD loans worth 40.1 bln AMD and USD loans worth $49.6 mln. As compared with the previous week, USD loans dropped by 7.6%, amid 7.2% rise of the ones in terms of AMD. A week before (August 22-27), the dynamics was as follows: AMD loans declined by 13.3%, while the ones in terms of USD grew by 67.8%.  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 till September 9. At the same time, AMD devaluated against EUR and RUR to 535 AMD/1EUR and 7.4 AMD/1RUR.