YEREVAN. - Armenian commercial banks purchased $79.5 million and sold $78.6 million on September 12-17. This is one of the rarest cases when commercial banks purchased more dollars than sold.

The beginning of the week showed the tendency of dollar appreciation, however the last two days has been depreciating. Most probably high rates motivated the citizens to refrain from dollar acquisition.

Credit market does not mark increase in dollar demand either. Loans provided in Armenian drams totaled AMD 29.2 billion (around $80 million). Loans allocated in U.S. dollars make $38.8 million.