Wednesday, April 6 2011 19:25
Agriculture of Armenia needs reforming, chairman of Union of Banks says
ArmInfo. The agriculture of Armenia needs not only credits on easy terms but also reforming, chairman of Union of Armenian Banks, Chairman of "ARARATBANK" BOARD, Ashot Osipyan, said during today's round table organized by the club of economic journalists.
He also added a favourable field for crediting should be created and insurance institutions for assessment of agricultural risks introduced. High risks make credits expensive, he said. At present agriculture credits are just 6% in the total portfolio of the banks. The rates of interest for these credits are also rather high, about 17-19%. However, there is a positive tendency, as over a year the volume of agriculture crediting grew by 19% - about 60 bln drams, Osipyan said and added that agriculture credits have been granted most of all to farmers of Armavir, Ararat and Kotayk regions of Armenia.
To note, according to the data of Arminfo, the volume of agriculture crediting in absolute terms amounted a little bit more than 55 bln drams. At present the government has been drawing out a programme of the state subsidizing of the credit rates for agriculture. Representatives of the banking sector of the country think that because of low liquid of the bid security, the policy of rates subsidizing will not have good results. For this reason, the state has to take several important decisions, including guarantees of the government when paying off a mortgage for plots by their cadastre cost. In its turn, this will give an opportunity to banks to credit farmers on low rates of interest. According to the bankers, this will give more results than the state subsidizing of the rates for agriculture crediting.
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