YEREVAN, March 6. / ARKA /. The depreciation of the Russian ruble associated with the Ukrainian turmoil could adversely affect the Armenian economy, economy minister Vahram Avanesyan told reporters after a recurrent Cabinet session today, adding that it may cut the amount of remittances sent home by Armenian labor migrants.
The second concern, he said are potential problems with Armenian exports, ‘because the depreciated ruble would not promote Armenian exports.”
The minister could not say how the depreciation may affect Russian banks operating in Armenia. He said if the depreciation cause is the outflow of Russian capital, then Russian banks here may have problems.
“We need to understand the impact of this situation on the Armenian economy in the long run. If the depreciation of the Russian currency is short-term, then we will not make any significant change in our economic development policy, but if the problem persists we will have to consider a change,” he said.
Amid fears over a possible military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the ruble fell March 3 to historic lows against the dollar and euro, as Russian stocks collapsed by more than 6 %. This also affected the average exchange rate of the ruble against the Armenian dram.
According to the Central Bank of Armenia, the ruble traded on March 3 at 11.33 drams, a decrease of 0.11 points compared to February 28. -0-
