ArmInfo. During the week of July 13–17, the Armenian interbank foreign exchange market saw sustained growth in dollar-denominated transactions, while ruble- denominated activity experienced a deepening decline. There have been no euro transactions recorded for nearly five months.
Specifically, the growth rate of dollar transactions decelerated from 67% to 7%, while the decline in ruble transactions accelerated from 15% to 59.4%. As a result, the weekly volume of dollar transactions has reclaimed its position as the dominant currency, surpassing ruble volume by nearly two-fold. In the previous week, ruble transactions had dominated, although the gap between the two had narrowed from a 3:1 to a 1.5:1 ratio.
On the interbank foreign exchange market during the same period (July 13–17 vs. July 6–10), the trend for dollar buy-sell operations reversed toward a decline. Regarding the euro, a trend of slowing purchases was accompanied by an acceleration in sales growth. For ruble transactions, the shift in purchase trends toward a decline was accompanied by a significant surge in sales volume.
As a result, from July 13 to 17, the Armenian dram (AMD) continued to strengthen against major currencies: USD: from 365.5 to 364.3 AMD/USD; EUR: from 418 to 417 AMD/EUR and RUB: from 4.39 to 4.22 AMD/RUB. Compared to July 17, 2025, the dram has shown a year-on-year revaluation of 5% against the dollar, 7% against the euro, and 14% against the ruble.
According to the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA), dollar transactions were conducted daily, while ruble transactions occurred four times. Excluding Tuesday (July 14), both currencies were traded simultaneously on July 13, 15, 16, and 17. As a result, the total weekly dollar transaction volume amounted to $10.7 million at an average exchange rate of AMD 367.39 /USD (compared to AMD 367.34/USD the week before), while the weekly ruble transaction volume amounted to 465 million rubles at an average exchange rate of AMD 4.72 /RUB (compared to AMD 4.81 /RUB the week before). The highest dollar volume was recorded on Tuesday ($4 million), while the highest ruble volume occurred on Wednesday (250 million RUB).
Compared to the previous week, the trend for dollar buy-sell operations reversed from 40% and 3% growth to 13.2% and 0.1% declines, respectively. Euro purchases saw a reversal from 5.4% growth to a 27.3% decline, while sales growth accelerated from 2.5% to 16.2%. Ruble purchases shifted to a 3.5% decline (compared to 8% growth the previous week), while ruble sales shifted from a 38.3% decline to a two-fold increase. As a result, $ $235.9 million bought (avg. rate 365.41 AMD/USD) and $251.3 million sold (avg. rate 367.76 AMD/USD); 39.1 million EUR bought (avg. rate 415.77 AMD/EUR) and 63.8 million EUR sold (avg. rate 422.33 AMD/EUR); 7.9 billion RUB bought (avg. rate 4.56 AMD/RUB) and 6.1 billion RUB sold (avg. rate 4.79 AMD/RUB).
The interbank foreign exchange market recorded its highest dollar sales volume on Monday (July 13 - $69.2 million), while the largest dollar purchases and euro and ruble purchases and sales occurred on Wednesday (July 15 - $58.9 million, 9.98-18.98 million euros, 1.8-3.9 billion rubles).
Data from the CBA indicates that from January to May 2026, the Central Bank performed $983 million in interventions, exclusively through purchase operations. These actions contributed to the strengthening of the dram from 381.49 AMD/USD in December to 368.69 AMD/USD by May.
On the interbank foreign exchange market from January to May 2026, $3.5 billion, EUR 859.4 million, and RUB 180.7 billion were purchased, while $3.9 billion, EUR1.1 billion, and RUB 67.1 billion were sold. This activity resulted in the following average exchange rates for May 2026: AMD 367.19/USD, AMD 427.04/EUR, and AMD 4.97/RUB, and a selling rate of AMD 369.75/USD, AMD 433.87 EUR, and AMD 5.11/RUB, compared to December 2025 rates of AMD 380.38/USD, AMD 442.74 /EUR, and AMD 4.83/RUB for buying, and AMD 382.62/USD, AMD 449.26/EUR, and AMD 4.91/RUB for selling.
During the first five months of 2026, the volume of operations on the interbank market totaled $238.6 million, 5.3 million EUR, and 15.5–16.3 billion RUB. Notably, there were no euro transactions recorded from March through May. During this period, the dram strengthened against the dollar, moving from 381.33 AMD/$1 to 368.84 AMD/$1 and weakened slightly against the ruble, moving from 4.88 AMD/RUB to 5.10 AMD/RUB.
Recall, ruble transactions on the Armenian interbank currency market began on March 14, 2022. From January to May 2026, dollar transactions on the exchange platform totaled $22.2 million. This activity coincided with an appreciation of the dram, which reached 368.51 AMD/$1 in May, compared to 387.75 AMD/$1 in October, the last time dollar operations were recorded on the exchange the previous year.
