Saturday, November 19 2016 12:45

ArmInfo. On November  14-November 18, the amount of transactions on the interbank forex  market of Armenia grew 6-fold after almost 2-fold decline in previous  week. At the same time, on the intrabank market the purchase/sale of  dollars experienced different dynamics; EUR transactions grew  significantly, amid growing interest towards RUR transactions. Thus,  in the current week, AMD devaluated against USD from 477 to 479  AMD/USD1, revaluated against EUR from 520 to 509.5 AMD/1EUR, staying  against RUR at 7.4 AMD/1RUR. In overall, in Jan- Sept 2016, AMD  appreciated against USD from 482 to 474 AMD/USD1, depreciating  against EUR from 529 to 532 AMD/1EUR, and against RUR from 6.9 to 7.5  AMD/1RUR. In October AMD devaluated against USD from to 476 AMD/USD1,  revalued against EUR to 521 AMD/1EUR, while AMD/RUR rate remained  unchanged-7.5 AMD/1RUR.  Since the beginning of the year the foreign  exchange market showed signs of life rarely making one at a time  transaction between March and May:  USD100 thousand in March,  USD2.950 mln in April and USD800 thousand in May, after which it was  passive. In Jan-Aug 2016, Central Bank bought USD on the foreign  exchange market in April (USD2.4 mln), June (USD50.2 mln) and August  ($19.8 mln) and sold in January and February (USD53.1 mln and  USD41.5mln, respectively).

The press office of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) has told  ArmInfo that on November 14- 18, the forex interbank market increased  daily amounts of transactions with maximum on Tuesday and Friday -  $3-3.5 mln and minimum in Wednesday-$900 thousand. In overall the  weekly amount of transactions on the forex interbank market totaled  $10.750 mln (versus $1.8 mln a week before) forming average exchange  rate of 479.55 AMD/$1 (versus previous 478.57 AMD/1USD). As regards  the intrabank market, USD purchase grew by 5.9% versus previous 8.8%,  while the EUR purchase rose sharply by 64% versus previous week's  7.9% decline. At the same time, USD sales dropped by 11% from  previous 6.8% decline, while EUR sales grew by 67.8% versus previous  18.6%. At the same time RUR purchase grew by 10.4% versus previous  10.7% decline, RUR sales grew by 10.4% versus previous 2%. The  purchase totaled $77.8 mln at the exchange rate of 478.15 AMD/$1,  11.5mln EUR at 515.07 AMD/1EUR, and 947.1 mln RUR at 7.28 AMD/1RUR,  while the sales totaled $72.7 mln at 479.71 AMD/$1, 19.3 mln EUR at  517.12 AMD/1EUR, and 498.5 mln RUR at 7.37 AMD/1RUR.

According to the source, during the previous week (November  7-November 12), the Armenian banks provided AMD loans worth 44.7bln  AMD and USD loans worth $49.8 mln. The weekly dynamics of AMD loans  was downward amid improving dynamics of USD loans. Particularly, the  amount of AMD loans fell by 18.7% and the amount of USD loans grew by  11.4%, versus the previous week's 37.5% and 19% decline,  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 18, the exchange  rates were as follows:  479AMD/1USD, 509.5AMD/1EUR, and 7.4AMD/1RUR.