Armenian Dram keeps deprecating against USD and appreciating against EUR and RUR

ArmInfo. On November 21-25,  the transactions on the interbank forex market declined by 8.1%. On  the intrabank market the USD purchase demonstrated downward trend,  while the USD sales slackened decline. Along with this, the interest  in EUR and RUR operations fell. As a result, last week AMD kept  depreciating against USD from 479 to 479.5 AMD/$1 and appreciating  against EUR from 509.5 to 506 AMD/1EUR. The AMD/RUR exchange rate  stood at 7.4 AMD/1 RUR. 

The press office of the Central Bank of Armenia has told ArmInfo that  on November 21-25 on the interbank forex market the maximum amount of  transactions was fixed on Friday ($2.9 mln) and the minimum amount  was registered on Monday ($500 thsd). The total amount of  transactions on the interbank forex market was $9.880 mln (versus  $10.750 mln a week before), and the average exchange rate was 479.48  AMD/$1 (versus 479.55 AMD/1USD a week before). In the meantime, on  the intrabank market the USD purchase transactions dropped by 14%,  while EUR purchase fell by 39%. USD sales dropped by 8%, while EUR  sales fell by 8%. RUR purchase declined by 9%, and RUR sales - by  37%. As a result, the USD purchase totaled $66.8 mln at the average  exchange rate of 478.51 AMD/$1, EUR purchase - 6.9 mln EUR at 505.9  AMD/1EUR, and RUR purchase - 862.4 mln RUR at 7.40 AMD/1RUR.  Meanwhile, USD sales amounted to $66.8 mln at 480.01 AMD/$1, EUR  sales - 17.5 mln EUR at 509.48 AMD/1EUR, and RUR sales - 314.1 mln  RUR at 7.51 AMD/1RUR.

According to the source, during the previous week (November 14-19),  the Armenian banks provided AMD loans worth 54.0 bln AMD and USD  loans worth $62.8 mln. The amount of AMD loans grew by 21% and the  amount of USD loans grew by 26%. 

To recall, in 2015, on the retail foreign exchange market of Armenia  AMD weakened against USD from 477 to 482 AMD/USD1 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/USD1, however since March it strengthened and stood  at 482 AMD/1USD by March 25. In overall in H1 2016 AMD appreciated to  477 AMD/USD1 from 482 AMD/USD1, devaluating in mid Feb (to 496  AMD/USD1 from 482AMD/USD1 on Feb 12), in the first decade of April  (to 484.5AMD/USD1 from 479 AMD/USD1), in mid May (to 480.5 AMD/USD1  from 479 AMD/USD1-on May 12), in the early and late June (to 479  AMD/USD1 from 478 on June 3 and to 477 AMD/USD1 from 476 AMD/USD1 on  June 30). In July AMD appreciated to 476 AMD/USD1 only in the  beginning of the third decade, after which it stood at the initial  level of 477 AMD/USD1. In August, AMD demonstrated revaluation - 475  AMD/USD1 by August 31 and stood at this level in the first ten days  of September, after which it further revaluated.  Thus, by September  30, AMD appreciated against USD and EUR to 474 AMD/USD1 and 532  AMD/1EUR, respectively. Along with it, AMD depreciated against RUR to  7.5 AMD/1RUR. In October AMD devaluated against USD to 476 AMD/1USD,  revaluated against EUR to 521 AMD/1EUR, while the AMD/RUR exchange  rate remained unchanged - 7.5 AMD/1RUR. This trend continued in  November. By November 25, AMD depreciated against USD to 479.5  AMD/$1, at the same time appreciating against EUR to 506 AMD/1EUR and  retaining its positions against RUR at 7.4 AMD/1RUR.