For the moment USD rate is
overvalued while AMD rate is undervalued, Chairman of the Central Bank of
Armenia Artur Javadyan told journalists on Wednesday.
He said that AMD's hyper-depreciation has been caused
by panic and speculations.
"Real value of AMD will become known as soon as
the factors that are causing the current hyper-depreciation are eliminated. As
soon as the current panic and speculations are stopped, AMD will get much
stronger," Javadyan said.
He said that USD rate will drop but refrained from
saying when exactly this will happen. "When people stop panicking,"
he said.
Javadyan urged people not to yield to the temptation
to earn money on the current fluctuations as this may cause financial losses.
Javadyan explained that one of the factors that has
caused the current panic is the drop in RUR rate. "Georgia is facing a
similar situation, simply, in Armenia the panic started earlier," he said.
On Dec 8 Armenia's Central Bank said that it was going
to sell $6mln a day on the forex market for a week and then depending on
demand, would start reducing the interventions. On Dec 15-17 the CB sold $4mln.
Since Oct 2014 AMD has dropped by 40% against USD to
570 AMD/1 USD at 5:00 PM Dec 17. Most of shops in Armenia have suspended their
activities as they are not sure what prices to charge.