Saturday, March 18 2017 09:56

ArmInfo. The currency  interbank of Armenia increased volume sharply for three times, from  March 13 to March 17, after a decline by 38% a week earlier. In  parallel with this, on the intrabank market, after passivity in the  previous week, the current active phase included both USD and RUR  transactions, as well as EUR transactions.

Against this background,  the exchange currency market, which showed itself a small volume the  week before, again took a timeout. As a result, AMD for the reporting  week continued to strengthen to the USD, this time from 486 to 484  AMD/USD1, in parallel with this, changing the mood to the RUR from  strengthening to devaluation from 8.2 to 8.4 AMD/RUR1, Further  weakening to the EUR from 515 to 521 AMD/EUR1. A year earlier, in the  first 17 days of March 2016, AMD strengthened to the USD from 491 to  487 AMD/USD1, but devalued to EUR from 540 to 548 AMD/EUR1 and RUR  from 6.6 to 7.2 AMD/RUR1. Comparison with current rates indicates the  annual strengthening of the AMD to the USD and the EUR, with  devaluation to RUR. For the full year of 2016, the exchange currency  market gave signs of life occasionally for one operation in  March-May: $ 100 thousand in March, $ 2.950 million in April and $  800,000 in May, followed by a lull. The Central Bank bought USD in  April in the foreign exchange market ($ 2.4 million at the rate of  478.5 AMD/USD1), June ($ 50.2 million at the rate of 476.72  AMD/USD1), August ($ 19.8 million at the rate of 474.25 AMD/USD1),  September ($ 28.8 million at the rate of 474.11 AMD/USD1) and October  ($ 50.8 million at the rate of 475.47 AMD/USD1), and sold in January  ($ 53.1 million at the rate of 484.69 AMD/USD1), February ($ 41.5  Million at the rate of 492.59 AMD/USD1), November ($ 13.1 million at  the rate of 478.56 AMD/USD1) and December ($ 15 million at the rate  of 483.06 AMD/USD1).

As the press service of the Central Bank of Armenia told ArmInfo, on  March 13-17, transactions in the amount of $ 14.889 million (weekly  growth by 3 times) at the average rate of 483.66 AMD/USD1 (against  the previous 486.27) were conducted at the currency interbank market.  The maximum volume on the foreign currency interbank market "lit up"  on Wednesday - $ 10.039, followed by "extinction" on Thursday to $  2.750 million and on Friday to $ 1.350 million. In parallel, in the  intra-bank market, the weekly dynamics of buying/selling currencies  sharply changed the vector from a decline to growth. So, for the  reporting week, the volume of buy/sale of USD from the 28.7-39%  decline fell by 45-29.6% growth, the EUR - from 100-26.7% decline to  116-29.5 % growth, the RUR - from 20.7-14.8% decline to 19.3-5.4%  growth. As a result, $ 89.9 million was purchased at the average  exchange rate of 483.89 AMD/USD1, 15.96 million EUR at the average  rate of 513.98 AMD/EUR1 and 847.4 million RUR. At an average rate of  8.19 AMD/RUR1, and sold $ 91.4 million at an average rate of 485.34  AMD/RUR1, 11.4 million EUR at an average rate of 518.22 AMD/EUR1 and  416.4 million RUR at the average rate of 8.30 AMD/RUR1.

According to the source, over the previous week (March 6-11),  Armenian banks issued AMD 37.3 billion and USD loans for $ 53.9  million. Compared to the previous period (February 27 to March 4),  the decline in AMD credits was continued, but with a slowdown rates  from 18% to 14.6%, at the same time, the issuance of USD loans  dropped sharply by 38.9%, after growing two-fold a week earlier.