Friday, August 5 2016 19:12

ArmInfo. On August 1-5, the declining USD and EUR purchase and sale transactions in the intrabank market of Armenia strengthened Armenian dram (AMD) against USD from 477 to 476 AMD/$1, and against EUR from 532 to 530 AMD/1EUR. In the meantime, the intrabank market experienced active purchase of Russian ruble (RUR), which depreciated AMD against RUR from 7.1 to 7.2 AMD/1RUR. The interbank forex market, in turn, reduced the USD transactions almost threefold, but the operations were registered every day (ranging from $300 thsd to $900 thsd versus $1.7- 5.1 mln a week before), except Friday.  

In general, in the first half of 2016, AMD appreciated from 482 to 477 AMD/$1, depreciating in mid Feb (from 482 to 496 AMD/$1 on Feb 12), in early April (from 479 to 484.5 AMD/$1), in mid May (from 479 to 480.5 AMD/$1 on May 12), in early and in late June (from 478 to 479 AMD/$1 on June 3, and from 476 to 477 AMD/$1 on June 30), maintaining the 477 AMD/$1 level in the first half of July and totaling 476AMD/1USDon July 24. However, within the last week of the month, the national currency devaluated to 477AMD/1USD.

The press office of the Central Bank of Armenia has told ArmInfo that NASDAQ OMX Armenia is passive, while the interbank forex market was idle only on Friday. The smallest amount was registered on Monday - $300 thsd, and the biggest amount was fixed on Tuesday - $900 thsd. The transactions carried out on Wednesday and Thursday amounted to $700 thsd and $600 thsd, respectively. On August 1-5, the total amount of transactions in the intrabank forex market was $2.5 mln (versus $7.2 mln a week before), forming an average AMD/USD exchange rate at 476.57 AMD/$1 (versus the previous 476.73 AMD/1USD).

The source says that on August 1-5, the USD purchase and sale transactions on the intrabank market dropped by 31.8% and 23.4%, respectively. The EUR purchase and sale transactions dropped by 22.5% and 34.5%, respectively. RUR purchase grew by 17%, but RUR sales rose by 0.1% only. $63.4 mln was bought at the average exchange rate of 475.41 AMD/$, 9.3 mln EUR was bought at 528.63 AMD/1EUR, and 1.164 bln RUR - at 7.13 AMD/1RUR. At the same time, $73.6 mln was sold at 476.77 AMD/$1, 9.5 mln EUR - at 533.80 AMD/1EUR, and 432.3 mln RUR - at 7.22 AMD/1RUR.

During the previous week (July 25-30), the Armenian banks provided AMD loans worth 36.4 bln and USD loans worth $56.5 mln. As compared with the previous week (July 18-23), AMD loans grew by 8.3%, amid 27.3% growth of the ones in terms of USD.

To recall, in 2015, on the retail foreign exchange market of Armenia AMD weakened against USD from 477 to 482 AMD/$1 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.  Since early 2016, AMD started depreciating again on the retail foreign exchange market of Armenia to 496AMD/$1, however since March it strengthened and stood at 482 AMD/1USD by March 25. Later, AMD started revaluating again since mid-April. By April 29, AMD appreciated against USD to 479 AMD/$1 and this trend continued in May. By May 31, AMD appreciated against USD to 478 AMD/$1, and against EUR to 532 AMD/1EUR, at the same time depreciating against RUR to 7.3 AMD/1RUR. The first half of June AMD demonstrated moderate depreciation, followed by appreciation:  thus by June 30 the AMD stood at 477 AMD/$1, 529 AMD/1EUR, and 7.4 AMD/1 RUR. In July AMD was still at 477 against USD, depreciating against EUR to 532 AMD/1EUR and appreciating against Russian Ruble to 7.1 AMD/1RUR. Over the first week of the next month (1-5 August), AMD appreciated against USD and EUR to 476 AMD/$1 and 530 AMD/1EUR, respectively, at the same time depreciating against RUR to 7.2 AMD/1RUR.