The wavering of the USD rate has become a regular thing for us. And the interpretation and commenting on the wavering has become either boring or exhilarating for those questioned about the rate fluctuations. Last week the USD was devalued by 5 AMD, and this year the rate reached 348 AMD per USD. Yesterday we tried to find out from the Chairman of the Central Bank of RA, Tigran Sargsyan, what happened to the RA economy, which caused such a wavering of the currency. “I have given over 100 comments on that issue and this one is the 101st,” Sargsyan said with a broad smile. “Now I’d like to quote certain things from old files and in particular the quotation of my colleague of the Dutch CB. He said that the best practice of Europe is that the CBs refuse to comment on the wavering of currency rates. “This should be done by the market experts, because when CB experts comment, it causes certain deflections in the market. Thus the best thing to do is avoid commenting on that issue, which I’d like to do now with your permission.” But we’d like to refresh Sargsyan’s memory, and remind him of the remarks of the report of the IMF 2006. For the last year, the CB planned 3% inflation, but by the end of the year it became impossible to deter 5% inflation. The IMF was advising not to change the planned 3% inflation margin. However, Sargsyan, who usually follows the advice of his “colleagues”, refused to do so this time. Nevertheless, Sargsyan and his colleagues refuse to comment on the currency wavering. And this phenomenon remains one of the greatest problems of the RA economy. Besides Sargsyan, few people know why the currency rate is wavering like this. So we need a simple, professional explanation.
