AMD changed mood for USD and EUR from strengthening to devaluation

ArmInfo. The currency interbank  of Armenia reduced the volume for almost 3 times from April 3 to 7,  after a decline by 11.6% a week earlier. In parallel with this, on  the intra-bank market, foreign exchange transactions, after the  activity of the previous week, on the current one have sharply  entered a passive phase.

Against this background, the exchange  currency market was empty.  As a result, AMD for the reporting week  changed its mood for the USD in the opposite direction from  strengthening to devaluation from 484 to 485.5 AMD/USD1, also  restructuring and to EUR from 516 to 518 AMD/EUR1, while retaining  positions to RUR at the level by 8.6 AMD/RUR1. A year earlier, for  the first week of April 2016, AMD depreciated against USD from 481 to  483 AMD/USD1, to EUR from 544 to 553 AMD/EUR1 and to RUR from 7.1 to  7.3 AMD/RUR1, which, in comparison with current rates, indicates an  annual devaluation of AMD to USD and RUR, with revaluation to EUR.  For the full year of 2016, the exchange currency market gave signs of  life occasionally for one operation in March-May: $ 100 thousand in  March, $ 2.950 million in April and $ 800,000 in May, followed by a  lull. The Central Bank bought USD in April in the foreign exchange  market ($ 2.4 million at the rate of 478.5 AMD/USD1), June ($ 50.2  million at the rate of 476.72 AMD/USD1), August ($ 19.8 million at  the rate of 474.25 AMD/USD1), September ($ 28.8 million at the rate  of 474.11 AMD/USD1) and October ($ 50.8 million at the rate of 475.47  AMD/USD1), and sold in January ($ 53.1 million at the rate of 484.69  AMD/USD1), February ($ 41.5 Million at the rate of 492.59 AMD/USD1),  November ($ 13.1 million at the rate of 478.56 AMD/USD1) and December  ($ 15 million at the rate of 483.06 AMD/USD1). In January 2017, the  exchange currency market showed only a volume of $ 600 thousand at a  rate of 486.79 AMD/USD1, and the Central Bank in the foreign exchange  market sold $ 15 million at a rate of 485.84 AMD/USD1.

As the press service of the Central Bank of Armenia told ArmInfo, on  April 3-7, transactions in the amount of $ 4.970 million (weekly  decline almost 3 times) were made at the foreign exchange interbank  market at the weighted average rate of 484.88 AMD/USD1 (against the  previous 484.06). Throughout the week, the interbank fixed modest  volumes, only on Thursday and Tuesday showed more seriously $ 1.5-2  million. In parallel with this, in the intra-bank market, the weekly  dynamics of currency purchase/sale sharply changed the vector from  growth to decline. So, for the reporting week, the volume of  purchase/sale of USD from 19- 19.1% growth in the fall to 33.5-30.1%  decline, the same pattern was observed for EUR transactions 34.1-  24.3%. The growth was replaced by a 32.5-9.8% decline, against which  RUR deals also changed the trend from the ascending 4.1-2.4% to the  descending 17.7-13.3%. As a result, $ 54.5 million was purchased at  the average exchange rate of 483.57 AMD/USD1, 11.4 million EUR at the  average rate of 514.06 AMD/EUR1 and 770.2 million RUR. At an average  rate of 8.55 AMD/RUR1, and sold $ 72.4 million at an average rate of  485.14 AMD/USD1, 12.03 million EUR at an average rate of 518.38  AMD/EUR1 and 339.9 million RUR at the average rate of 8.66 AMD/RUR1.