YEREVAN, July 26. /ARKA/. The government of Armenia is going to lower the rates on subsidized loans provided to farmers and also increase the related financing, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Robert Makaryan told journalists on Wednesday.
Government-subsidized loans are given in Armenia’s national currency- the dram. The average loan size is 625,000 drams. Loans are provided with a grace period of 6 months, after which only interest is paid off, while another six months are given for the payment of the rest of the amount.
Makaryan said the government has revised the program deciding to lower interest rates on loans. In particular, if earlier loans were granted at the rate of 14%, of which 6% were subsidized by the government, and farmers received loans at 8% interest rate, now the final rate for farmers will be 5%.
At the same time, the rate for border villages included in the state support program will be even lower at 3%, he said.
According to the deputy minister, the government has earmarked 7.5 billion drams as subsidies for 2017. Later the amount will grow to 10 billion drams. The deputy minister said also that the largest amount of a loan has been raised from 3 million drams to 10 million.
He said the ministry will be watching that loans are spent solely in the agricultural sector. He also noted that short-term educational programs will be designed for farmers to help them improve the use of agricultural machinery and increase their financial literacy.
In 2011-2016 Armenian farmers received a total of 99.1 billion drams of subsidized loans. ($ 1 – 478.76 drams). –0–
