YEREVAN, November 25. /ARKA/. The dollar versus Armenian dram exchange rate will hardly reach 500 drams’ level, head of Alternative research institute, economist Tatul Manaseryan said in his exclusive interview to ARKA Agency.

The dollar rate has recently rocketed to an eight-year high in Armenia, having gone up by 16.6 points to 435 drams per USD just in a couple of days, from November 21 to November 24. Dollar versus dram rate was 435.28 drams per $1 back in May 2006 (24.05.2006), but went down to 363.5 drams per $1 by the end of the year.

According to the central bank, the dollar has risen by 5.8% since early November.

Manaseryan said both upward and downward change is possible in future, depending on to which extent the state reserves of both Armenia and Russia will allow for currency interventions.

On the other hand, the expert, said, predicting West-Russia dialogue outcomes is not easy, but if improved these relations will, no doubt, have impact on the exchange rate, the market relations and the business activity.

“We managed to predict what is happening now two months ago, but it is practically impossible to make the same successful predictions about what will happen by the end of the year. The only thing I can say is we will be hardly back to the rate below 400 drams, but I think the rate will not hit 500 drams’ level either”, Manaseryan said.

The expert also said his projection is the dollar rate will fluctuate within 450-460 drams per $1 but not in the next days.

Armenian dram started to depreciate at the end of October. The Central Bank of Armenia sold some $60.75 million at the forex market over the last three weeks. In General, according to the central bank, the regulator has sold about $203.38 million and purchased $50.15 million since the beginning of the year.

Apart from this, euro exchange rate rose by 19.38 drams from November 21 to 539.53 drams per euro on November 24. –0—