YEREVAN, March 12, /ARKA/. A senior official of Armenian Armbusinessbank predicted today the national currency Dram may depreciate further next week to trade at 400 per one USD.

Vahan Melkonian, head of the bank’s financial department, said to ARKA it was difficult to make forecasts about USD behavior next week, because its value is changing several times a day, depending on the volume of incoming remittances and outflow of money.

‘If the outflow of US Dollars increases it may strengthen, otherwise the exchange rate may remain unchanged. The exchange rate may be affected also by growing inflow of remittances,’ he said, adding that the man factors affecting the exchange rate are the amount of demand and supply.

‘The Central Bank follows strictly all these processes and uses all available instruments to maintain the money policy at a proper level to avoid sharp fluctuations of the exchange rate,’ Melkonian said.

Armenian national currency traded today at 392.62 per one USD, against 391.42 on March 11, the Central Bank of Armenia reported.  -0-