ArmInfo. The currency interventions are a measure of last resort, but the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) has exhausted all its instruments to curb the Armenian dram depreciation, economist and ex-lawmaker Vardan Bostanjyan said at today's press conference.
"Certainly, such frequent interventions may result in exhaustion of the emergency funds of the country, but the CBA has no other way out. It is necessary to curb inflation," the economist said.
At the same time, he said that as compared to other countries of the region, which experienced a sharp depreciation of their national currencies, the international reserves of Armenia have not shrunk much. "In Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan the emergency funds have literally evaporated, needless to say about Russia," he said.
To note, in 2016 the biggest CBA interventions were fixed on January 15 - $32.4 mln, January 29 - $23.8 mln, February 5 - $26.5 mln and February 12 - $16.2 mln. In 2015, the biggest interventions were registered on August 28 - $95 mln, September 19 - $22.2 mln, November 13 - $19.6 mln, October 2 - $6 mln and December 11 - $6 mln. In early 2016, the CBA kept conducting weekly interventions to curb the growth of the exchange rate. As a result, the exchange rate on the retail forex market of Armenia rose from 482 to 496 AMD/1USD and stood at this level within the current week.
By the CBA's data, in Jan 2016 the gross international reserves of Armenia dropped by 1.7% to $1740.2 mln. Throughout 2015, this indicator grew by 18.9% from $1.5 bln to $1.8 bln versus 35% decline in 2014.