YEREVAN, January 11. / ARKA /. An Armenian pro-opposition daily Haykakan Zhamanak (Armenian Time) says in its today issue that Armenia’s Central Bank is trying to go back to a fixed exchange rate of the country’s national currency, the Dram, against US Dollar. To substantiate its claims the daily says the Central Bank moved quickly to sell about $1o million at the stock exchange January 10 in an effort to preserve the rate at 364 Drams per one USD.
The daily also quotes its sources as saying that the Central Bank hopes remittances from Russia and some other countries will increase this year to allow to meet the demand for US Dollar. The daily accuses the Central Bank of repeating the same mistake it committed in 2008 by selling hundreds of millions of US Dollar to keep the exchange rate at 305 Drams, but eventually had to reverse to floating exchange rate in 2009 March that triggered a market collapse. The daily is concerned that a similar situation may repeat this time as well. -0-
