Armenia is negotiating with Russia to maintain the gas tariff, Robert Nazaryan, Head of the Public Services Regulatory Committee (PSRC) said in the Parliament, on Wednesday.
He said the gas and electric power tariffs in Armenia are interconnected. The electric power tariff is based on various factors, including the currency rate fluctuations. It is after the ongoing negotiations that it will become clear whether to expect applications for revision of the tariffs from the generating companies or not. "At the current stage, the situation with the electric power ands gas tariffs is still obscure," he said. According to Nazaryan, the Committee envisages the tariffs based on the exchange rate for 2015 - 413 drams per 1 US dollar. However, the rate has already grown to 480 AMD/ 1 USD. The sharp fluctuation of the currency rate has already caused about 8 billion drams damage to the energy facilities of Armenia.
To recall, the exchange rate has been rising over the last months of 2014, exceeding 570 drams per 1 US dollar. From Oct through Dec 17 AMD dropped against USD by 45%, Dec 18-20 it grew by 25%. On Dec 22 it started dropping again. On Dec 27, at 4:00 pm, the rate was 470 AMD against 1 USD, 574 AMD against 1 EUR, 8.7 AMD against RUR. On Dec 20 the rates were 455 AMD, 555 AMD and 7.8 AMD, respectively, versus 570 AMD, 712 AMD and 8.6 AMD, respectively, on Dec 17. At NASDAQ OMX Armenia, the exchange rate grew from 407.14 to 560 AMD/1 USD (on Dec 17, the very day when the exchange rate grew 22%), and again went down to 470 drams per 1 USD on Dec 27. As for Feb 20 2015, the exchange rates on the retail market totaled 479 drams/1 USD in average, 544AMD/1EUR and 7.8AMD/1 RUR