Armenia’s foreign exchange interbank market saw active trading in both US dollars and Russian rubles on September 14-18. At the same time, according to the Central Bank of Armenia, no euro-denominated transactions were recorded for the third consecutive week.
During the reporting week, the trend in dollar transactions swung from a 13.3% decline to 31% growth, while the growth in ruble deals accelerated sharply from 30.2% to 94%. As a result, weekly ruble turnover continued to exceed dollar turnover, with the gap widening from 2.2 times to 3.3 times.
Between September 14 and 18, the dram weakened against the US dollar from 362.5 to 363.5 drams per $1. At the same time, it strengthened against the euro from 420.8 to 417.8 drams per euro and against the ruble from 4.19 to 4.14 drams per ruble.
A year earlier, on September 18, 2025, the dram stood at 382.5 per dollar, 452 per euro and 4.55 per ruble. Compared with current levels, this indicates annual appreciation of the dram by 5% against the dollar, 8% against the euro and 9% against the ruble.
Central Bank data show that dollar trades were conducted four times on the FX interbank market during the week, while ruble trades took place every day. That means both dollar and ruble transactions were carried out simultaneously from Tuesday to Friday, September 15-18.
For the week, dollar transactions totaled $8.5 million at an average rate of 364.06 drams per $1, compared with 363.72 drams a week earlier. Ruble transactions reached 2.375 billion rubles at an average rate of 4.30 drams per RUB, versus 4.24 drams a week earlier. The largest ruble trading volume was recorded on Monday at 700 million rubles, while the biggest dollar trading session was on Wednesday, September 16, at $4.5 million.
On the intrabank FX market, compared with the previous week, the trend in dollar buying and selling reversed from a 16-12.2% decline to growth of 8.2-42.2%. Euro transactions showed a similar shift, moving from a 1-5.4% decline to 26.2-35% growth. In the ruble segment, the pace of growth in purchases accelerated from 8.8% to 26.8%, while sales shifted from 11.2% growth to a 3.6% decline.
As a result, from September 14 to 18 banks bought $199.7 million at an average rate of 362.32 drams per $1, 86.1 million euros at 416.89 drams per EUR, and 11.4 billion rubles at 4.23 drams per RUB. They sold $252.8 million at 364.67 drams per $1, 64.7 million euros at 422.62 drams per EUR, and 3.5 billion rubles at 4.34 drams per RUB.
Among daily highs on the intrabank market, the largest ruble purchase volume was recorded on September 14 at 2.7 billion rubles. The biggest dollar sales volume was posted on September 15 at $83.7 million, the highest euro sales on September 16 at 15.5 million euros, and the largest ruble sales on September 17 at 1.5 billion rubles. On September 18, banks recorded the highest purchase volumes for both dollars and euros, at $53.9 million and 30.9 million euros respectively.
According to the Central Bank of Armenia, in January-July 2026 it carried out $1.510 billion in FX market interventions, all of them purchases. Over that period, the exchange rate strengthened from 381.49 drams per dollar in December to 367.74 drams in July.
In January-July 2026, the intrabank FX market bought $5.5 billion, 1.4 billion euros and 266.6 billion rubles, while sales amounted to $6.1 billion, 1.7 billion euros and 102.02 billion rubles. That resulted in July buying rates of 365.49 drams per $1, 415.46 drams per euro and 4.56 drams per ruble, while selling rates stood at 367.94 drams per $1, 421.89 drams per euro and 4.75 drams per ruble. In December 2025, the comparable levels were 380.38, 442.74 and 4.83 drams for buying, and 382.62, 449.26 and 4.91 drams for selling.
On the FX interbank market, January-July 2026 transactions totaled $369.7 million in dollars, 10.3 million euros and 26.97 billion rubles. No euro transactions were carried out in March-June. Over the same period, the dram strengthened on the interbank market both against the dollar, to 367.44 drams per $1, and against the ruble, to 4.70 drams per ruble, from 381.33 and 4.88 drams respectively in December 2025.
Ruble trading on Armenia’s FX interbank market began on March 14, 2022. On the exchange-based FX platform, dollar transactions worth $28.5 million were conducted in January-July 2026, alongside a strengthening of the dram to 367.40 per dollar in July from 387.75 per dollar in October, when dollar operations were last recorded on the exchange a year earlier.
