YEREVAN, February 25. /ARKA/. The Armenian dram fell 21% against the US dollar over the last two years, economist Karlen Khachatryan, the head of the All-Armenian Youth Movement NGO, told journalists on Wednesday.
It means that Armenian national currency was more stable than other countries on post-Soviet space.
Khacharyan said that Russian, Kazakh and Belarusian national currencies lost half of their values, and Ukrainian hryvna faced 200% devaluation against the dollar.
Georgia’s things are no better – its lari sank 40-43% against the American currency. Azerbaijan’s manat slid 105%.
Khachatryan said the European single currency dived 23% against the US dollar – deeper than the Armenian dram.
He doesn’t think that the dram’s stability was ensured by the central bank’s dram-supporting policy in 2015.
The economist stressed that a combination of some natural factors supported the Armenian national currency’s stability.
In particular, a 30% decrease in money transfers to Armenia was offset by increase in foreign investments and the country’s exports.
As a result, reduction of dollar inflows was not so significant, and thanks to that the Armenian dram retained its value.
The dram was the most stable national currency in the Eurasian Economic Union and the Commonwealth of Independent States. It lost only 14.9% of its value, while other EEU and CIS member countries’ currencies lost much.
In the beginning of 2016, the dollar started rising against the dram. As a result, the Armenian national currency fell 2.3%.
According to the National Statistical Service of Armenia, the country’s exports totaled $1 486.9 million in 2015 showing a 3.9% year-on-year decline, and imports shrank 26.5% to $3 254 million.
Foreign investments in Armenia’s economy received not via banking sector and without state administration in Jan-Sept 2015 amounted to about AMD 141.5 billion – 36.6% more than in Jan-Sept 2014. –0—-
