YEREVAN, December 16. /ARKA/. The dollar exchange rate has just exceeded the 500 drams per $1 level in the Armenian capital.

Dollars are sold at 505-515 drams per $1 and bought at 495-500 drams in the exchange offices and in banks in Yerevan today.

On Monday the official dollar versus Armenian dram rate was rose by 8.97 to 471.78 drams per $1 in the forex market.

Euro rate is over 600 drams per euro in the Armenian capital. Today euro is bought at 652 drams and sold at 622 drams in Yerevan. Official euro versus dram rate jumped 10.91 points to 585.95 drams per euro yesterday.

Since December 9 the Central Bank of Armenia has been carrying out inspections in exchange offices to ensure compliance with the regulations. The inspections will be carried out till the end of the year.

Earlier, the head of the central bank Artur Javadyan said they will take strict measures against speculations in the forex market. Procedures have already been initiated on a number of possible speculation cases.

The dollar versus Armenian dram rate hit the eight-year record high on November 24, having jumped by 16.6 points to 435 drams per $1. In order to stabilize the forex market and to scotch currency speculations the central bank raised the Lombard repo rate from 10.25% to 21% and started currency interventions through daily auctions. During the last week only, the central bank sold 30 million dollars to banks. –0--