YEREVAN, December 8, /ARKA/. The Central Bank of Armenia has denied today a story in the daily Haykakan Zhamanak which claimed that Armenia’s net foreign exchange reserves have dwindled as a result of an active interventions of the Central Bank in a bid to maintain the exchange rate of the national currency-Dram- at a fixed rate.

In a press release the Central Bank said a December 5 story in the daily claimed that Armenia’s net forex reserves slashed from 560.9 billion Drams to 553.7 billion Drams in one week as a result of active intervention of the Central Bank in the forex market.

The Central Bank cited several reasons to say why net forex reserves contracted by 7,25 billion Drams, saying particularly, that the net forex reserves have reduced because the government had to pay interest rates on loans and because of ’the movement of hard currency correspondent accounts of commercial banks in the Central Bank’, servicing the government and other.

The Central Bank also said its share in $16.1 million deals effected at NASDAQ OMX Armenia stock exchange was $3.3 million

‘To prevent repetition of such misunderstandings the Central Bank of Armenia once again reminds that the report on deals in the previous week is published every Monday,’ the Central Bank said. -0-