The level of dollarization of the economy of Armenia is still high. This is evidenced by the preliminary data of the Central Bank of Armenia for February 2012.
The deposits of residents in commercial banks as of the end of February amounted to 778,456 million drams. Of these, deposits in dramas are 297,265 million drams (38%), in foreign currency – 481 192 million drams (62%). Moreover, according to the urgent deposits of legal entities, the same ratio is maintained, and according to urgent home -made contributions, as usual, the picture is much worse. In February, urgent deposits in dramas amounted to 98,902 million drams (26%), deposits in foreign currency – 288 912 million drams (74%). And this despite the fact that the rates for deposits in the national currency are an average of several percentage points above the betting rates in dollars.
High level of dollarization is also preserved in terms of loans. So, according to the end of February, in the structure of credit investments of Armenian banks, dramatic loans amounted to 36.74%, currency – 61.01%. This level of dollarization of the loan portfolio of Armenian banks is quite logical. After all, the price of loans in dollars is cheaper than loans in dramas. Banks, attracting relatively cheap currency resources – both from foreign markets and inside the country – are ready to provide cheaper loans in foreign currency.
The practice of the many years of the struggle of the Central Bank of Armenia with the dollarization shows that it is simply pointless to fight the dollarization of administrative measures. Differentiated, depending on the currency, the standards of compulsory reservation do not give almost any results – the level of dollarization periodically decreases by several tenths of percent and again returns to the initial positions. In addition, it is difficult to evaluate the real level of dollarization of the economy, not knowing the exact volume of dollar cash in the country. After all, the currency is served and shadow turnover.
Dollarization is a risk. But not only the Central Bank, but also the Armenian government, working on the reform of the economy, a decrease in the level of the shadow economy, the development of the domestic market, a decrease in imports, etc. should minimize this risk. D. Due to which the stability of the national currency and the level of trust in it will increase. None of this is happening yet. And the war with the dollarization exclusively with the capabilities of the Central Bank creates only inconvenience for commercial banks, but the situation cannot fundamentally cannot change the situation.