Wednesday, June 23 2010 16:52
Armenian Central Bank forecasts 20%-25% growth of aggregate lending portfolio of Armenian banking system in 2010
ArmInfo. "The Armenian Central Bank forecasts 20%-25% or by 120-130 billion drams growth of the aggregate lending portfolio of the Armenian banking system in 2010," Vahe Vardanyan, Head of the CB Department for Financial System and Financial Stability, said in a press conference on Wednesday. He said that the highest demand for loans will be observed in the second half of the year and the anticipated growth is quite realistic. "This growth forecast yields to the volumes of 2007-2008 but the expected growth of the lending portfolio will have a positive impact on economy in the country after the serious slump of GDP in 2009," he said.
V. Vardanyan said that the aggregate lending portfolio of the banking system is 780 billion drams. Over the 5 months of 2010 this indicator grew 6% or by 42 billion drams. The share of trade finance in total was 16 billion drams, the share of construction loans was 5 billion drams. Agricultural loans totaled 3 billion drams, industrial loans - 2 billion drams and loans to the food industry sector totaled 2 billion drams of total. The specialist said that in the current year the lending market of Armenia is actively recovering, including consumer lending. He said that over the first 5 months of 2010 consumer lending grew by 6 billion drams or 14.3% versus 6.5% decline for the same period of 2009.
V. Vardanyan said that the crisis impact on the lending market of Armenia emerged since late 2008. In 2007 economic development loans grew 78% whereas in 2008 this indicator grew 51% and in 2009 - 14%. He said that last year the lending portfolio of the banking system underwent serious structural changes: the growth of the lending portfolio till the end of 2008 was the result of consumer and mortgage lending growth and increase in the trade finance loans, whereas since 2009 the portfolio has been growing thanks to industrial loans and CB and government programs. In fact, the share of industry has significantly grown in the total lending portfolio amid 22% decline of the share of consumer lending.
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