YEREVAN, September 13. / ARKA /. The external debt of Armenia-based commercial banks and credit organizations in the second quarter of 2013 dropped by 1.4 percent from the previous quarter to $1.04 billion, according to the Bulletin of the Central Bank of Armenia for the second quarter. It says commercial banks and credit organizations attracted $714.3 million in foreign loans in the reporting period of time and repaid $691.1 million on earlier attracted loans.
Some 13.1 % of loans were long-term, including 25.7 % from Russia, 23.8 % from Luxembourg, 8.2% from Latvia and 27% from international lending organizations.
In the second quarter the major creditor countries were Russia (17.5 %), Luxembourg (10.4% ), the Netherlands (7.4% ) and Germany ( 4.6%). International organizations accounted for 38.8 percent of loans.
The weighted average interest rate on loan funds raised by Armenian financial institutions in the second quarter showed a slight increase to 5.8 %. About 38.2 % of external loans were loans with a variable interest rate (LIBOR, EURIBOR , etc.). The average maturity of the loans was 4.5 years.
In the same time span the proportion of short-term loans decreased by 2.6 percentage points to 8% of all attracted lending. ($ 1 – 409.41 drams). -0-
