Armenia's Central Bank is not
planning prescheduled revision of its refinancing rate, the CB's Chairman Artur
Javadyan told journalists on Wednesday.
He said that this problem will be considered on Dec
24.
He said that given AMD's current instability, the CB
prefers not to revise the rate. On Nov 24 and Dec 3 the CB raised the Lombard
repo rates from 8.25% to 10.25% and from 10.25% to 21%, respectively.
On Nov 11 the CB kept the rate of refinancing
unchanged at 6.75%. The last time it changed the rate was Aug 12 when it was
reduced from 7% to 6.75%. In 2014 the rate was changed four times.
On Dec 17, the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) sold a
total of $4 mln to the participating banks at the average exchange rate of
570.58 AMD/$1 in the course of daily interventions in the interbank currency
market, with the cut-off price being 567.65 AMD/$1.
Since the launch of the daily interventions, i.e. from
Dec 8 through Dec 17, the CBA sold USD 42mln to the participating banks - USD
6mln daily on Dec 8-12 and USD 4mln on Dec 15-17. The CBA press service has
told ArmInfo that over this period the average exchange rate rose from 456.63
to 570.58 AMD/$1 and the cut-off price grew from 455 to 567.65 AMD/1 USD.
On Dec 17, before 2 pm, the average AMD/USD exchange
rate in the retail currency market was 550 AMD/$1, AMD/EUR exchange rate - 715
AMD/1EUR, with the former rising to 570 AMD/$1 and the latter dropping to 712
AMD/1EUR, respectively, by 5 pm. In the meantime, the average AMD/RUR exchange
rate rose from 8.5 to 8.6 AMD/1RUR.