ArmInfo. Anti-Russian sanctions in the short term do not threaten Armenia, the acting president said. Minister of Economic Development and Investments of Armenia Suren Karayan on April 12 during a briefing for journalists, touching upon the possible negative impact of the latest sanctions against the Russian Federation.
Nevertheless, according to Karajan, Armenia closely follows the sanctions process, as Russia is Armenia's largest trading partner. "The first thing that can have a direct impact on us is the volatility of the Russian ruble, which in the short term does not pose a threat to us, but we monitor the processes, consult with our Russian colleagues and keep this issue in the center of attention," he said. Karayan. At this stage, as noted. Minister, discussions are being held with Armenian exporters, which are fulfilling their contractual obligations with their Russian partners in rubles. If necessary, as Suren Karayan assured, the government uses the necessary tools to assist.
On April 6, the United States imposed new sanctions against Russia on sanctions that spread to two dozen Russian businessmen, oligarchs and officials. This caused the collapse of the quotations of securities of many Russian companies and banks, including those not affected by new sanctions, as well as a sharp weakening of the ruble against the dollar and the euro. Companies of some of them are represented in Armenia. Against the background of the collapse of the Russian ruble, the Armenian foreign exchange market found itself in a "turbulence zone" due to a significant degree of correlation between the economies of Armenia and Russia.
According to the market participants interviewed by ArmInfo, after the introduction of the next US sanctions against Russia, many Russian rubles accumulated in the retail foreign exchange market of Armenia, which are illiquid due to the depreciation, while at the same time there is a dollar deficit. As a consequence, speculative demand for US currency has increased significantly. As a result, experts believe, the dram to ruble began to strengthen, while weakening noticeably against the dollar and the euro. But experts believe that as long as the devaluation of the dram to the dollar is within the limits, which do not cause much concern, since there is no sharp drop in the national currency rate. This speculative trend, as experts suggest, will last a maximum of a week, after which the situation will stabilize, and then the "rollback" of the exchange rate to its previous positions is not ruled out.