YEREVAN, December 10. /ARKA/. The Central bank of Armenia (CBA) will be back in the stock exchange after the situation in the forex market stabilizes, CBA chairman Artur Javadyan told reporters on Tuesday.
Dram started suffering a sharp fall after November 24 when the dram versus dollar rate jumped by 16.6 points to an eight-year-record-high 435 drams per $1. The rate was as high as 450 drams on December 8 and reached 455.08 drams per $1 on Tuesday December 9.
On Monday December 8, the CBA came up with a new approach and said it will be selling a preliminarily announced limited amount of foreign exchange at daily auctions by the end of this year. Javadyan said similar tools are used in different countries to reduce dependence on expectations and stock exchange shocks.
Some $6 million will be sold to banks every day during the first week, but then the amount will be gradually reduced to zero as the demand will go down.
“I believe we are already out of the shock, but this tool will be still used, and we will be back to marketplace trading afterwards”, Javadyan said.
The head of the central bank also said right now Armenian banks may buy and sell forex freely at the stock exchange and carry out inter-bank forex deals whenever they wish. They do not do it just due to possible risks, he said.
Risks may be lower in a couple of days and banks may be back in the stock exchange, Javadyan said.
NASDAQ OMX Armenia stock exchange released no data on forex trading on its official website for the last two days. No US dollar and euro transactions have been effected in the stock exchange since December 2. The last transaction was recorded on December 1 with USD versus dram exchange rate at 438.62drams per $1. –0–
