YEREVAN, December 22. / ARKA /. Armenia’s Central Bank has sold today $2 million to commercial banks at the average weighted exchange rate of 451.89 drams per one US Dollar.
The Central Bank began selling fixed amount of hard currency to local banks on December 8. The amount for the first week was $6 million that was cut to $4 million in the following week and to $2 million for this week.
The regulator said it will be doing so until the end of the year to stabilize the tension in the financial market that was triggered by a dramatic drop in dram’s value against USD and euro throughout December.
In a statement issued on December 17 Central Bank chairman Arthur Javadyan said the exchange rate of the US Dollar in Armenia was overvalued ‘because of speculative currency trading and panic at the market.”
He said the regulator would effect a set of measures to help the dram regain its position. The next day the USD dropped by 30.2 points to 497 drams.
Today the average market exchange rate of USD against dram rose by 0.42 points from December 20 to 456.17 drams.-0-
