YEREVAN, October 4. /ARKA/. Two weeks ago, the US dollar traded at 387 drams; today it is trading at 420-450 drams, economist Hrant Mikayelyan said.

"There is a flight of capital and flight of deposits, mass currency exchange, a panic. In this situation, it is necessary to suspend all these operations for a certain time, for 2-3 days until there is some stability in the forex market to prevent more negative consequences," he wrote in TG-channel.

According to Mikayelyan, expecting everything to be normal in the economy "when the historical region of Armenia (Nagorno-Karabakh) has been destroyed, when we have mass casualties and refugees is crazy."

"All the more so when Armenian exporters already have serious problems on the Russian border amid the conflict between the Yerevan authorities and those in Moscow," he added.

Since September 19, when Azerbaijan attacked Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian dram has been losing value against USD. On October 2, the US dollar surged by almost 9 drams to 400 drams and grew further the following days to 413.45 drams.

About 60 trucks with Armenian cognac are waiting at the checkpoint Upper Lars on the Georgian-Russian border to enter Russia. The line emerged after Russians decided to step up quality check of Armenian produce, said Vahan Hakobyan, Armenian customs attaché deployed at the border crossing.-0-