YEREVAN, May 19. /ARKA/. Armenian banks’ overall lending stood at 4.14 trillion drams in late March 2021, Executive Director of the Union of Banks of Armenia (UBA) Seyran Sargsyan said at a press conference on Wednesday.
According to him, in the first quarter the lending decreased by 1.5% or 64 billion drams and increased by 6.9% or 265 billion drams when compared to the first quarter of 2020.
He said the drop was due to the fact that local banks forgave loan debts of soldiers, who were killed in last autumn war in Nagorno-Karabakh, were wounded or went missing.
According to him, the lending to the construction sector grew by 2%, mortgage loans increased by 7%, and the agricultural loans by 4%.
At the same time, consumer lending dropped by 1%, lending to industry – by 2%, to trade – by 0.2%, and to transport and communications sectors – by 1%.
He said also that about 49% of the total lending (2.028 trillion drams) are loans provided to economy and companies, and 41% – to individuals (1.683 trillion drams), the remaining 10% are interbank loans and deposits (429 billion drams).
He said also that the share of loans provided in foreign and local currencies was 50% each. He also noted that the liabilities of banks in the first quarter decreased by 2 billion drams or 0.02%, but they grew by 13.9% or almost 701 billion drams year-on-year. ($1 – 521.55 drams). –0–
