YEREVAN, February 10. /ARKA/. On Tuesday Armenia’s Central Bank again stepped in to inject $15 million in the local currency market in an apparent effort to shore up the national currency, the dram, a local daily ‘Haykakan Zhamanak’ (Armenian Time) says in a story in its today’s issue.
According to the newspaper, the move was forced by the depreciation of the Russian ruble, prompted by a sharp decline in the oil price in the second half of Tuesday, following the report of the International Energy Agency.
According to the report, the growth of oil supply in the world market has plummeted oil prices from $34 to $30 per barrel. The Russian ruble responded immediately – the USD’s exchange rate at the Moscow stock exchange increased from 77 to 80 rubles.
“It was the devaluation of the ruble that exerted pressure on the Armenian dram, forcing Armenian Central Bank to step in to neutralize that wave,” the newspaper says. At the same time, according to the story, there is a shortage for US dollars at the Armenian market, as evidenced by the data of the Central Bank and the banks.
The shortage, however, is not big, and the interventions of the Central Bank are sufficient to prevent the depreciation of the dram in the coming days. However, much will depend on the situation in international markets, the newspaper said.
The exchange rate of the greenback decreased to 494.24 on February 9 after two weeks of growth. Since the beginning of 2016 the dram has lost 2% of its value. -0-
