Active transactions registered on NASDAQ OMX Armenia in late January 2017

ArmInfo. NASDAQ OMX Armenia  was quite active in late January 2017, while the interbank forex  market demonstrated a downward trend. As a result, Armenian dram  retained its positions against US dollar and EUR at 486.5 AMD/$1 and  520 AMD/1EUR, at the same time slightly appreciating against Russian  ruble from 8.2 to 8.1 AMD/1RUR. In early January, AMD sharply  depreciated against EUR rather than against USD and RUR, and this  trend continued in mid-January.

It should be noted for comparison  that at the beginning of 2016 AMD exchange rate was as follows: 482  AMD/$1, 529 AMD/1EUR and 6.9 AMD/1RUR. Since the beginning of 2016  the foreign exchange market showed signs of life rarely, making one  at a time transaction between March and May:  USD100 thousand in  March, USD 2.950 mln in April and USD 800 thousand in May, after  which it was passive. In Jan-Oct 2016, the Central Bank bought USD on  the foreign exchange market in April (USD2.4 mln at 478.5 AMD/$1),  June (USD 50.2 mln at 476.72 AMD/$1), August ($19.8 mln at 474.25  AMD/$1), September (USD28.8mln at 474.11 AMD/$1) and October (USD  50.8 mln at 475.47 AMD/$1), and sold in January and February (USD53.1  mln and USD 41.5mln, respectively at 484.69 AMD/$1 and 492.59  AMD/$1).

The press office of the Central Bank of Armenia has told ArmInfo that  on January 23-27 the amount of transactions on the interbank forex  market totaled $9.8 mln at the average exchange rate of 486.83AMD/$1.  In the meantime, on the intrabank market the banks bought $101.4 mln  at the average exchange rate of 485.74 AMD/$1, 7.8 mln EUR at the  average exchange rate of 518.59 AMD/1EUR and 701.1 mln RUR at the  rate of 8.12 AMD/1RUR, and sold $104.3 mln at the average exchange  rate of 486.80 AMD/$1, 8.8 mln EUR at average rate of 523.2 AMD/1EUR  and 303.1 mln RUR at the average exchange rate of 8.22 AMD/1RUR. 

According to the source, during the previous week (January 16-21),  Armenian banks provided AMD loans worth 39.1 bln AMD and USD loans  worth $22.1 mln (down 3-fold and down 8.7-fold versus a week before). 

To recall, in 2015, on the retail foreign exchange market of Armenia,  AMD depreciated against USD from 477 to 482 AMD/USD1 on average and  appreciated 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 slackening of economic activity growth from 3.9% to 3.1%,  decline of foreign trade turnover (by 20.6%), with import dropping  more significantly (by 26.5%) than export (by 3.9%) as well as amid  decline in money transfer inflow to Armenia by over 30%, and this  happened under conditions of low buying capacity of the population.  In 2016, AMD depreciated on the retail foreign exchange market of  Armenia against USD and RUR to 484AMD/USD1 and 8 AMD/1RUR, and  revaluated against EUR to 505 AMD/1EUR. This happened amid deflation  of consumer prices by 1.1% in 2016, slackening of growth of economic  activity to 0.5%, and decline of the net inflow of transfers (by 24%  in Jan-Nov 2016 versus Jan-Nov 2015). In the meantime, the foreign  trade turnover grew by 7.4% and deflation on the consumer market made  up 1.4%. In early 2017 AMD depreciated against USD from 484 to 485  AMD/$1, against EUR from 505 to 511 AMD/1EUR, and against RUR from 8  to 8.1 AMD/1RUR.