Forex interbank market of Armenia becomes less active

ArmInfo. The press office  of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) has told ArmInfo that NASDAQ OMX  Armenia is still passive. In the meantime, on November 7- 11, the  forex interbank market operated only on Friday - $1.800 mln (versus  $9.546 mln throughout the previous week) at the average exchange rate  of 478.19 AMD/$1 (versus previous 476.38 AMD/1USD). As regards the  intrabank market, USD purchase grew by 8.8%, while the EUR purchase  rose by 7.9%. At the same time, USD sales dropped by 6.8%, while EUR  sales grew by 18.6%. RUR purchase fell by 10.7%, and RUR sales grew  by 2%. The purchase totaled $73.58 mln at the exchange rate of 477.40  AMD/$1, 6.98 mln EUR at 526.02 AMD/1EUR, and 858 mln RUR at 7.43  AMD/1RUR, while the sales totaled $82.19 mln at 479.09 AMD/$1, 11.5  mln EUR at 528.83 AMD/1EUR, and 450.8 mln RUR at 7.54 AMD/1RUR.

According to the source, during the previous week (October  31-November 6), the Armenian banks provided AMD loans worth 55bln AMD  and USD loans worth 44.7 mln. The weekly dynamics of AMD and USD  loans was downward. Particularly, the amount of AMD loans fell by  37.5% and the amount of USD loans - by 19%, versus the previous  week's 81.7% and 65% growth, respectively.

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.  Since early 2016, AMD  started depreciating again on the retail foreign exchange market of  Armenia to 496AMD/USD1, however since March it strengthened and stood  at 482 AMD/1USD by March 25. In overall in H1 2016 AMD appreciated to  477 AMD/USD1 from 482 AMD/USD1, devaluating in mid Feb (to 496  AMD/USD1 from 482AMD/USD1 on Feb 12), in the first decade of April  (to 484.5AMD/USD1 from 479 AMD/USD1), in mid May (to 480.5 AMD/USD1  from 479 AMD/USD1-on May 12), in the early and late June (to 479  AMD/USD1 from 478 on June 3 and to 477 AMD/USD1 from 476 AMD/USD1 on  June 30). In July AMD appreciated to 476 AMD/USD1 only in the  beginning of the third decade, after which it stood at the initial  level of 477 AMD/USD1. In August, AMD demonstrated revaluation - 475  AMD/USD1 by August 31 and stood at this level in the first ten days  of September, after which it further revaluated.  Thus, by September  30, AMD appreciated against USD and EUR to 474 AMD/USD1 and 532  AMD/1EUR, respectively. Along with it, AMD depreciated against RUR to  7.5 AMD/1RUR. In October AMD devaluated against USD (to 476  AMD/1USD), revaluated against EUR to 521 AMD/1EUR, while the AMD/RUR  exchange rate remained unchanged - 7.5 AMD/1RUR. By November 4, the  exchange rates were as follows:  477AMD/1USD, 530AMD/1EUR, and  7.5AMD/1RUR.