168 Hours: Dram hits record low in past ten years

“The Armenian dram has sharply depreciated against other currencies this week. Last evening Armenian commercial banks sold one dollar for 501-502 drams, some banks for 505-510 drams. The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) raised the dollar sale price by 24 drams at once. CBA sold yesterday $4 million at the rate of 494.46 drams (on Friday CBA sold $6 million at the rate of 470.22 drams). This index is a record one in Armenia in the past ten years,” ‘168 Hours’ paper writes.

“The dollar last cost 500 drams in 2004. The difference is that the dram strengthened its positions at that time, while today it is falling. Many draw parallels with the 2009 dram depreciation when the dollar rate increased from 305 to 370 drams in one day. But the current situation causes more concern. The fact is that in 2009 the rate was stabilized, but today we are dealing with a continuous and unpredictable process, to which expectations and panic also contribute,” the paper notes.