On April 27-30, both the interbank forex market and NASDAQ OMX Armenia were passive. the forex operations on the interbank market dropped by 52.6% amid 21.3% decline at NASDAQ OMX Armenia.
The press service of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) has told ArmInfo that the forex operations carried out at NASDAQ OMX Armenia totaled $4.8 mln at the average exchange rate of 476.24 AMD/$1. The biggest amount of operations at NASDAQ OMX Armenia was registered on April 27 - $3.8 million. No transactions were fixed at NASDAQ OMX Armenia on April 28. Over the same period, the operations on the interbank market amounted to $900 thousand at the average exchange rate of 475.71 AMD/$1.
The source says that on April 27-30, on the intrabank forex market (operations with customers), the banks bought $72.8 mln at the average exchange rate of 474.83 AMD/$1 and sold $85.7 mln at the average exchange rate of 475.99 AMD/$1. On the intrabank forex market, the banks also bought 9.3 mln EUR at the average rate of 516.08 AMD/1EUR and sold 12.7 mln EUR at the average rate of 519.06 AMD/1EUR. In the meantime, the banks bought 847.4 mln RUR at the average rate of 9.11 AMD/1RUR and sold 228.5 mln RUR at the average rate of 9.27 AMD/1RUR.
To recall, over the last months of 2014, the forex market of Armenia experienced sharp growth in the exchange rate - over 570 AMD/1USD. To note, from Oct through Dec 17, 2014, AMD dropped against USD by 45%, Dec 18-20 it grew by 25%. On Dec 22 it started dropping again. On Dec 30, 2014, the rate was 474 AMD against 1 USD, 583 AMD against 1 EUR, 8.5 AMD against 1 RUR. For comparison it should be noted that on Dec 20 the rates were 455 AMD, 555 AMD and 7.8 AMD, respectively, versus 570 AMD, 712 AMD and 8.6 AMD, respectively, on Dec 17. At NASDAQ OMX Armenia, foreign exchange operations amounted to $744.5 million drams in 2014 with the exchange rate growing from 407.14 to 560 AMD/1 USD (on Dec 17), then dropping to 470 AMD/1USD on Dec 27. The transactions in March 2014 amounted to $104 mln, in November - nearly $117 million, in December - $13.6 mln. In March 2015, the average AMD/USD exchange rate on the retail forex market dropped to 472 AMD/$1, the AMD/EUR exchange rate declined to 509 AMD/1EUR, and the AMD/RUR exchange rate rose to 8.3 AMD/1RUR. By April 30, the exchange rates were 477 AMD/$1, 530 AMD/1EUR, and 9.5 AMD/1RUR.