The Armenian dram is among the ten currencies that may follow the Kazakh tenge in devaluation triggered by the recent decision of China, reported the Bloomberg financial data and media company.  

Accordingly, the trigger for the wave of depreciations was China’s decision to weaken the yuan on August 11, leaving countries competing with the world’s second-largest economy in export markets and those selling goods to it at a disadvantage. That added to the woes of emerging markets already reeling from a looming increase in U.S. interest rates and weakness in oil prices. Some, like the countries of the former Soviet Union, face an additional problem: the Russian ruble’s continued weakness puts them in an unfavorable position in their trade with Russia.

Bloomberg forecasts that the currencies which are among those most at risk from this conflux of global developments are Saudi Arabia’s riyal, Turkmenistan’s manta,  Tajikistan’s somoni, Armenia’s dram, Kyrgyzstan’s som, Egypt’s pound, Turkey’s lira, Nigeria’s naira, Ghana’s cedi, Zambia’s kwacha, and Malaysia’s ringgit.   

Bloomberg notes the following with respect to the Armenian dram: “The currency has lost 15 percent in the past 12 months, compared with a 46 percent drop in the ruble. A quarter of the country’s trade is with Russia.”