The 17th anniversary of introduction of Armenia’s state currency – dram – is marked on November 22.

Referring to the history of the national currency introduction, former chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia Bagrat Asatryan said that initially 92-93bln rubles were envisaged to be exchanged, according to calculations of the government, parliament and Central Bank. However, this sum was increased to make AMD 117bln.

Asatryan noted that after the introduction of dram, the country’s authorities pursued a restraining policy, resulting in its exchange rate of AMD 14.5 / USD 1. However, the situation changed in December 1993 when a policy of floating rate was adopted. The exchange rate devaluated by five times, totaling AMD 75/ USD 1 by the end of 1993.

It should be noted that the USD market average rate totaled AMD 361.05 on November 19, 2010, according to the CBA.

Currently the CBA continues interventions in foreign currency, what allows AMD to revaluate.

Bagrat Astaryan sees the future of AMD “in the arms of a good currency.”

Specifically, according to him, Armenia is a European country and our future is with Europe. At the same time, Asatryan noted that he is not against Russia’s desire on creation of a united ruble zone, which could include Armenia.

Armenian dram (translated as money) has been circulated since November 22, 1993. 1 dram includes 100 lumas, while luma coins are not used now.