YEREVAN, June 21 / ARKA /. Armenian deputy finance minister Vartan Aramian declined today to make a forecast about the national currency’s behavior against the greenback saying it depends both on internal and external factors.

"The fluctuation depends on two factors - internal and external. In terms of domestic factor we see that the pace of our economic growth is much higher than in partner countries, and this will certainly keep on strengthening USD against our currency," he told reporters on Thursday.

Aramian blamed also the devaluation of dram on developments in European countries, since due to the increased risk investors are removing their dollar funds from European banks, a process that began also in Russia and some CIS countries.

"Investors found that the US is the relatively safe place to store money. This has resulted in increased demand for the dollar. This could not fail to affect Armenia ", he said.

Aramian said the Central Bank can not "go against the global developments," and its task in this situation is to prevent panic that may be sparked by the devaluation of the dram and currency speculation.

He then added that fluctuations do not pose a threat to the economy.
"Last year we conducted a study together with the World Bank that shows that even in the case of a 20% devaluation of the dram our economy will not have problems,"- he said. -0-