YEREVAN, January 18. /ARKA/. On Monday, Hrant Bagratyan, representative of Armenian National Congress and former prime minister, speaking at a press conference, said that Armenian dram should be purposefully devaluated.

He thinks that is this happens, businessmen will be interested in export.

In his opinion, at the initial stage of the state promotion of export, exchange rate should be AMD 470 per one dollar.

Now one dollar is being traded at AMD 377.36.

The former premier said that despite the dram is being supported by the central bank, the value of the national currency has fallen.

He thinks artificial support of the dram by the central bank is beneficial only for importers.

Bagratyan thinks the Central Bank of Armenia, like China, should buy foreign currencies transferred to Armenia and lend them.

He said that without support from the government the dram would devaluate in 2010.

Bagratyan also said that the central bank’s calculations and outlooks for exchange rates should be based on the basket that includes euro, dollar, Russian ruble and even Chinese yuan.

In early March 2009, after the Central Bank of Armenia started pursuing the policy of floating exchange rates, Armenian dram has precipitously weakened.

Experts at the central bank said one dollar would cost AMD 360 to 380 in 2009. -0--