YEREVAN, December 17./ARKA/. The euro crossed the record high of 700 drams at Yerevan's foreign exchange market today – the European currency is being sold at 680-720 drams and bough at 650-680 drams here.

The official average exchange rate leapt 28.5 percentage points to 614.20 drams per one euro.
The dollar is traded at 550-560 drams and bought at 525-540 drams. Yesterday, the dollar's official exchange rate surged 18.56 percentage points to 490.34 drams.

Banks reacted to the developments at forex market in their own way trying to keep the situation under their control – some of them limited sales of foreign currencies, some sold them only to their clients and some stopped selling them at all.

Remarkable is that ordinary people shows no signs of panic so far – they don't line up before foreign exchanges for purchasing currency, as it was in March 2009 after devaluation of the dram.

Fever at the forex market began on November 24, when the U.S. dollar soared 16.6 percentage points against the national currency to 435 drams hitting the record high in the last eight years. The dollar continues its upward motion every day.

To stabilize the situation and curb jobbing at forex market, the Central Bank of Armenia raised Lombard REPO from 10.25% to 21% and started currency interventions via everyday auctions with limited amounts announced beforehand.

The central bank was selling $6 million every day to banks the last week, and this week the regulator cut the amount to $4 million.

Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan said today in his statement that the government will remain stuck to its floating exchange rate policy to ward off a long-term instability.

In his words, the current processes at the country's financial market are mainly due to global and regional developments, which are not free from elements of jobbery.

The premier said that the government supports the central bank's efforts to stabilize the financial market and is taking every measure to protect interests of Armenia's citizens and companies. ----0----