AMD appreciation registered amid intensive activation of interbank forex market and small transactions on NASDAQ OMX Armenia

ArmInfo. The Armenian forex  interbank increased the amount of transactions almost 2-fold on  February 20-24 versus 3.3-fold decline a week before. In addition,  the intrabank market intensified EUR operations, while the demand for  dollars and rubles declined. A small amount of transactions was  registered on NASDAQ OMX Armenia as well. As a result, AMD slightly  appreciated against USD and RUR from 487 to 486.5 AMD/$1 and from 8.5  to 8.4 AMD/1 RUR, and significant appreciated against EUR from 520 to  516 AMD/1EUR. For comparison it should be noted that in early 2016  the AMD/USD exchange rate was 482 AMD/$1, AMD/EUR exchange rate was  529 AMD/1EUR, and AMD/RUR exchange rate was 6.9 AMD/1RUR. In 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 rate), 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, February, November,  and December (USD53.1 mln, USD 41.5mln, USD 13.1 mln, and USD15 mln  respectively at 484.69 AMD/$1, 492.59 AMD/$1, 478.56 AMD/1USD and  483.06 AMD/1USD, respectively). 

The press office of the Central Bank of Armenia has told ArmInfo that  on Feb 20-24 the interbank forex market registered operations worth  $11.650 mln (almost 2-fold growth versus a week before) at the  average exchange rate of 486.96 AMD/$1 (versus previous 487.04). On  Nasdaq OMX Armenia operations amounted to $200 thsd (2-fold decline  versus a week before) at the exchange rate of 487.25 AMD/$1 (versus  previous 487). Along with this, on the intrabank market the USD  purchase and sale declined by 10- 12%, RUR purchase grew by 2%, while  the sale dropped by 38%. EUR purchase grew by 97%, while the sale  rose by 24%. As a result, the purchase made up $62.6 mln at the  average exchange rate of 485.92 AMD/$1, 13.8 mln EUR at 512.68  AMDа/1EUR Ё 811.2 mln RUR at 8.36 AMD/1RUR, while the sales amounted  to $74.3 mln at 487.46 AMD/$1, 12.4 mln EUR at 516.66 AMD/1EUR and  300.3 mln RUR at 8.47 AMD/1RUR.

The source says that on Feb 13-18 Armenian banks provided AMD loans  worth 41.5 bln AMD and USD loans worth $44.3 mln. 

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. 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 slackening of economic activity growth  to 0.5% and decline of the net inflow of transfers (by 17.8% in  Jan-Dec 2016 versus Jan-Dec 2015). At the same time, foreign trade  turnover grew by 7.4% and deflation on the consumer market made up  1.4%.