YEREVAN, March 20. /ARKA/. The dram to dollar exchange rate is expected to fluctuate slightly this year, said Mesrop Hakobyan, Chairman of the Board of Unibank.
“The dram exchange rate (to the dollar – ed.) will fluctuate by plus or minus 5 drams, around 400 drams. This is my subjective opinion,” Hakobyan said at the 3rd Capital Markets Armenia conference organized by Cbonds.
According to the data from the National Statistical Committee of Armenia, in February 2025, the average settlement rate of the Armenian dram to the US dollar was 395.6 drams, which is 2.1% lower than the same indicator in February 2024 (404.3 drams).
Hakobyan expects that the rates on dram deposits will rise slightly by the end of the year, regardless of the behavior of the Central Bank’s refinancing rate.
“There is a certain deficit of dram resources, which is, first and foremost, a result of the state policy of de-dollarization. Given that consumer lending in our country is conducted exclusively in drams, and it will grow, the demand for dram resources from banks will continue to increase. I expect that rates on dram deposits will increase by about 1 percentage point,” Hakobyan said.
At the same time, he noted that the rates on dollar deposits will depend more on external factors.
The loan portfolio of the Armenian banking system in 2024 increased by 1.2 billion drams, or 24%, to 6.4 billion drams. The largest share in the structure of credit investments—22.8%—is accounted for by consumer loans, amounting to 1.4 trillion drams (a 33% increase over the year).
The ARKA and Novosti-Armenia news agencies are information partners of the III Capital Markets Armenia conference.
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