YEREVAN, February 5. /ARKA/. Interest rate spread of Armenia commercial banks was 4.62% in December 2013, a reduction of 1.31 percentage points against December 2012, ArmStat reported. A reduction of 0.18 pp was recorded compared to November.
Interest spread (difference between lending and deposit interest rates) is one of the key indicators to assess the banking system. High interest rate spread points to existing system risks when banks are unable to adequately evaluate lending risks.
According to ArmStat, average interest rates of Armenia’s commercial banks in December were 14.99% for loans and 10.55% for deposits.
There were 21 commercial banks operating in Armenia as of the end of August 2013.–0–
