ArmInfo.The Central Bank of Armenia will intervene in the foreign exchange market to ensure the normal functioning of the financial sector. This is stated in the message of the Central Bank of Armenia, spread on January 13.
The report also notes that the Central Bank of Armenia continues to monitor financial markets and, if necessary, will apply all the tools in its arsenal, guaranteeing price stability and financial stability. Note that previous announcements by the Central Bank of its intention to enter the foreign exchange market with interventions were made on November 24 and December 15, 2020. Prior to that, a noticeable devaluation of the dram began to be observed in the retail foreign exchange market of Armenia from the second decade of October 2020, with the approach of November 18 close to the mark of 500 AMD / $ 1 on average, and the next day the exchange rate of the AMD against the dollar has already exceeded 501 AMD / $ 1. and by November 23 it reached 507 dr / $ 1 on average, continuing to weaken more pronounced. Thus, on November 24, the dram exchange rate against the US dollar jumped to 516 AMD / $ 1 on average, against the euro - to 612 AMD / 1 euro, and against the ruble it rose moderately to 6.9 AMD / 1 ruble. However, after the announcement on November 24 by the Central Bank of its intention to intervene in the foreign exchange market, a slow strengthening of the dram has already been outlined since November 26, and by December 1, the dram strengthened against the dollar to 507 AMD / $ 1 on average, against the euro - to 607 AMD / 1 euro, and against the ruble - up to 6.7 dr / 1 ruble, continuing this attitude on December 2 - respectively, up to 506.5 dr / $ 1 and 605 dr / 1 euro, and "frozen" against the ruble at 6.7 dr / 1 ruble. But already from December 3, the dram devalued again to 511.5 AMD / $ 1,619 AMD / 1 euro and 6.9 AMD / 1 ruble, with the continuation of this trend in the following days, and by December 11, the dram weakened against the dollar to 521.5 AMD / $ 1, against the euro - up to 634 AMD / 1 euro, against the ruble - up to 7.2 AMD / 1 ruble. And already on December 15, the dram devalued against the dollar and euro to 528 AMD / $ 1 and 640 AMD / 1 euro, while maintaining its position against the ruble. After the repeated announcement of interventions and high activity in the interbank currency market during the last ten days of December 2020, the dram tuned in to strengthen, revaluing by December 29 against the US dollar to 522.5 AMD / $ 1 on average, against the euro - up to 639 AMD / 1 euro, against the ruble - up to 7.1 dr / 1 ruble. As a comparison, we note that at the end of 2019, the AMD exchange rate against the US dollar was 479.3 AMD / $ 1 on average, against the euro - 531 AMD / 1 euro, against the ruble - 7.7 AMD / 1 RUB. According to the Central Bank of Armenia, in January-October 2020, the Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia in the foreign exchange market made interventions for a total of $ 217.9 million, of which $ 90.9 million was bought (January-February and April) and $ 127 million sold (March-April) ... During this period, the dram against the dollar from January 479.09 AMD / $ 1 reached the April 493.1 AMD / $ 1 (purchase / sale). And if in January-February interventions in the foreign exchange market were exclusively for buying, and in March - only for selling, then in April the Central Bank carried out operations for both buying and selling, and the volume of sales almost doubled the volume of purchases ($ 57 million against $ 33.1 million), which formed the purchase rate at the level of 481.66 AMD / $ 1 and the sale rate at the level of 504.45 AMD / $ 1. In May-October, the Central Bank did not perform operations on the foreign exchange market. Since the announcement (November 24) by the Central Bank of its intention to carry out interventions through December 30 inclusively on the interbank currency market, in total, banks have made dollar transactions in the amount of about $ 33 million, of which $ 28 million fell in the last decade of December, and the maximum $ 10.4 million was "highlighted" December 29th. In November, the foreign exchange interbank was empty for 11 days, of which 9 days fell on the period until November 25. In total, in November-December, the foreign exchange interbank was empty for 22 days. It should be reminded that since September 27, Azerbaijan began military operations in Nagorno-Karabakh, which demanded maximum mobilization of resources from Armenia. However, the actual surrender of the Armenian side with the signing of an armistice agreement on the night of November 9-10 with the loss of the entire NKR security belt from seven regions and part of Artsakh itself led to a destabilization of the internal political situation in Armenia and some economic imbalance. Moreover, in order to get out of the current situation, Armenia will have to go for new foreign borrowings, a difficult process of economic financial stabilization, which naturally could not but affect the situation in the foreign exchange market.
