YEREVAN, November 22. /ARKA/. Armenian national currency has stabilized and become preferable for population over the 19 years of its existence. This is the conclusion made by ARKA News Agency after a blitz poll among Armenian financial market participants.

Head of financial markets transactions of Areximbank-group Gasprombank Narine Sargsyan said that the confidence toward Armenian dram has grown over the last years, despite certain weakening in 2009.

“At the moment confidence toward dram is quite high in case of savings, which, of course, is connected with high interest rates on deposits in drams,” she added.

According to head of dealing department of Bank Anelik Mher Grigoryan, high deposit interest rates make dram more demanded, confidence toward dram tends to continue growing.

The Central Bank of Armenia says average interest rate on dram deposits is 10.4% against 6.25% on foreign currency deposits.

According to the country’s National Statistical Service, deposits in drams totaled 333.6bln drams by the end of September 2012, 3.2 times as much as in the same period of 2006.

Armenian national currency, dram, was introduced on November 22, 1993. Since then dram had seen many highs and lows in its career (in the literal sense of the word) before it stabilized and strengthened in economically reasonable limits.

1,000, 5,000, 20,000, 50,000 and 100,000-dram banknotes are currently in circulation in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. The banknotes have high-tech security features.–0—