YEREVAN, July 14. /ARKA/. Bagrat Asatryan, former chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia, speaking Thursday at a news conference, said the country’s trade deficit is set to grow further because the country’s imports exceed exports 4 times.

He said that import in the first five months of this year the country’s import was growing faster than export.

According to the official statistical reports, exports totaled $487.7 million in Jan-May 2011 after growing 30.8%, and imports grew 12.6% to $1569.9 million.

As a result, adverse foreign trade balance amounted to $1082.3 million.

Asatryan also spoke about foreign currency reserves saying that the regulator’s efforts to bar the national currency from devaluation by selling foreign currencies produce no effect.

“Foreign currency reserves totaled $1.865 billion in December 2010, and by late July 2011 they amounted to $1.765 billion,” he said. “It means $100 million was sold, and this ensured relative stability to the forex market.” -0-