YEREVAN, December 25. /ARKA/. Things at Armenia’s forex market have already calmed, Vache Gabrielyan, vice-premier and minister of international economic integration, said Thursday at a regular Cabinet session.

Earlier, a working group was set up at Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan's instruction for scrutinizing the situation at the financial market and composing a list of short- and long-term measures to be taken to improve it.

Gabrielyan, the head of this group, reported that either foreign exchange rates or prices are stable now.
In his words, the difference between the dollar's selling and purchasing prices returned to usual indicators – 3 to 5 drams.

Gabrielyan said that more than 90 shops were closed on December 16 and 17 because of negative outlooks, but now they are open.

«There were shops working without set prices, but now things are put right, price labels are set and prices fixed, and no signs of instability are seen there,» he said.

Besides, he said, Armenia's antitrust agency released the results of this year's monitoring in large stores, where prices significantly went down after the peak of December 17.

Signs of stabilization are seen also in prices for gas and other commodities, Gabrielyan said.

«The working group worked in various directions, and the central bank, after seeing the results of the monitoring will release its concept of regulation of foreign exchanges, which will make it possible to lessen sharp fluctuations, and the antitrust agency will propose steps against economic entities dominating the market and will outline measures for a longer period,» he said.

Fever at Armenia’s forex market began on November 24, when the dollar surged 16.6 percentage points to 435 drams hitting its record high in eight years.

After the dollar hit a new record high on December 17, jumping 36.86 percentage points against the national currency to 527.20 drams, it shed 30.2 percentage points on the next day to 497 drams and the dram started recovering gradually thanks to the measures taken by the central bank and the government, though now it is sinking again. --0--