ArmInfo. In the Armenian interbank foreign exchange market from December 1 to 5, 2025, dollar transactions decreased, while the ruble transactions significantly increased. Euro transactions have been on hold for seven months. Specifically, the decline in dollar transactions lingered at 24%, while the growth of ruble transactions accelerated sharply from 57% to 2.1 times, allowing the weekly volume of ruble transactions to maintain its dominance over dollar transactions, with the gap widening from 1.2 times to 3.6 times.
In the interbank foreign exchange market, dollar purchases increased during the reporting week (December 1-5, 2025 compared to November 24-28, 2025), while sales growth slowed sharply. In euro transactions, the slowdown in purchase growth was accompanied by a decline in sales, while in ruble transactions, the growth in purchases and sales accelerated significantly. As a result, from December 1 to 5 of this year, the dram continued to weaken against both the dollar - from AMD 382.3 to AMD 383.5/ $1, against the euro - from AMD 441.8 to AMD 445.3/1 EUR, and against the ruble - from AMD 4.84 to AMD 4.95/ 1 RUB. A year earlier, on December 5, 2024, the dram exchange rate against the dollar was AMD 400.5/$1, against the euro - AMD 423/1 EUR, and against the ruble - AMD 3.89 drams/1RUB. Compared to current rates, this indicates an annual revaluation of the dram against the dollar and a devaluation against the euro and ruble.
According to the Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia, ruble transactions and four dollar transactions were conducted daily in the interbank foreign exchange market from December 1 to 5, 2025, with both types of transactions occurring simultaneously on all days except Friday (December 5), when only ruble transactions were conducted. As a result, the total weekly dollar transaction volume amounted to $6.080 million at an average rate of AMD 381.31/$1 (compared to AMD 381.28/$1 the week before), while the total weekly ruble transaction volume amounted to 1.685 billion rubles at an average exchange rate of AMD 4.92/1RUB (compared to AMD 4.83/1RUB the previous week). The maximum dollar volume was recorded on Thursday (December 4) at $3 million, while the largest ruble volume occurred on Tuesday (December 2) at 490 million rubles.
In the interabank foreign exchange market from December 1 to 5, 2025, compared to the previous week (24-28.11.25), the dollar buying trend reversed from a 25% decline to an 18.3% growth with a strong slowdown in sales growth from 28% to 0.4%; for euro transactions, the slowdown in buying growth from 9.1% to 8.5% was accompanied by a reversal in the sales trend from a 12% growth to an 18.2% decline; and for ruble transactions, the growth in buying and selling accelerated from 10-12.1% to 22-19%. As a result, during the reporting week, $160.3 million was purchased at an average rate of AMD 380.08 /$1, 36.5 million euros at an average rate of AMD 438.93 /1EUR, and 12.1 billion rubles at an average rate of AMD 4.88 /1 RUB. Additionally, $206.2 million was sold at an average rate of AMD 382.33 /$1, 47.4 million euros at an average rate of AMD 445.99 /1 EUR, and 3.2 billion rubles at an average rate of AMD 4.99/1 RUB.
Monday saw the highest volume of euro sales (December 1 - 11.99 million euros), followed by Tuesday, which saw the highest dollar sales and euro purchases (December 2 - $47.4 million and 10.1 million euros). Wednesday saw the highest ruble sales (December 3 - 1.4 billion rubles). Thursday saw the highest dollar and ruble purchases (December 4 - $40.1 million and 2.9 billion rubles). According to the Central Bank of Armenia, over the first 8 months of 2025, the Central Bank intervened in the foreign exchange market in February-August for a total of $1.069 billion, strengthening the exchange rate from AMD 394.19 /$1 in February to AMD 383.49 /$1 in August, and these were only purchase operations.
In the first 8 months of 2025, there were dollar transactions totaling $398,6 million, ruble transactions totaling 25,2 billion rubles and euro transactions totaling 1.9 million in the interbank foreign exchange market, with euro transactions carried out in February-March and May. During this period, the dram weakened against the ruble in the interbank foreign exchange market, reaching AMD 4.77 /1 RUB in July and strengthened against the dollar to AMD 383.67/1$, compared to AMD 3.84 /1RUB and AMD 396.1 /1$ in December 2024. The largest volume of dollar transactions was completed in January ($81 million), ruble transactions in May (7.7 billion rubles), and euro transactions in February (1 million euros.)
After eight years of "silence," the currency exchange platform resumed operations in June 2024. Over the five-month period (June-October), dollar transactions totaling $14.7 million were conducted, with the dram strengthening from AMD 388.9 /$1 in June to AMD 387.75 $1 in October. In November- December 2024, the foreign exchange platform was idle. Then, in 2025, over the seven months of 2025, dollar transactions totaling $10.1 million were conducted on the foreign exchange platform, with the dram strengthening from AMD 398.75/$1 in January to AMD 384.09/$1 in July. The currency exchange market was active during the seven months under review, reaching its peak monthly volume in July - $3.3 million.
Recall, ruble transactions in the Armenian interbank currency market started on March 14, 2022. From that point until the end of the year, transactions totaling 8.7 billion rubles were conducted, with an additional 17.5 billion rubles for the entire 2023. This was accompanied by a weakening of the dram against the ruble in the interbank foreign exchange market from March to December 2022, from AMD 4.86 to AMD 5.8/1RUB. However, the dram subsequently strengthened against the ruble to AMD 4.47/1RUB by the end of 2023 and further to AMD 3.84/1RUB by the end of 2024. However, since 2025, the dram has once again begun to weaken against the ruble. By the mid-year mark, it had reverted to the initial exchange rate of AMD 4.86 /1RUB in the interbank foreign exchange market.
