Thursday, May 3 2012 21:11
Armenian commercial banks increased lending by 5.5% for Q1 2012
ArmInfo. In March 2012 Armenian commercial banks increased lending by 2.6% to 1.347 trillion AMD ($3.5 billion). The y-o-y growth of lending was 32.6%, and the growth for Q1 2012 was 5.5%. Exclusive of extended and overdue loans, total provision of crediting grew by 2.7% in March and amounted to 1.318 trillion AMD ($3.4 billion), with the y-o-y growth being 35.7%, and the growth for Q1 2012 - 5.4%.
The preliminary data of the Central Bank of Armenia provided to ArmInfo by the National Statistical Service of Armenia say that the share of loans in terms of the national currency (exclusive of extended and overdue loans) was 37.3%, or 491.2 billion AMD (up 1.8% for March, the y-o-y growth being 24%, and the growth for Q1 2012 - 1.8%). Foreign exchange loans totaled 62.7%, or 826.7 bln AMD (up 3.2% for March, with the y-o-y growth being 43.8%, and the growth for Q1 2012 - 7.6%).
In the structure of loans provided by commercial banks as of 1 April 2012, the share of extended loans was 1.65%, or 22.2 billion drams (up 6.7% for March, with the y-o-y decline being 44.3% and the growth for Q1 2012 - 5.5%). The share of overdue loans was 0.5%, or 7.1 billion drams (down 18% for March, with the y-o-y growth being 67.9% and growth for Q1 2012 - 22.8%).
In the structure of extended loans, the share of short-term loans was the largest - 75.2%, or 16.7 billion drams. Almost all the overdue loans were short-term.
The interest rates for the loans in terms of the national dram for March 2012 were reduced by 0.37 points to 17.74% as of 1 April 2012 (with the y-o-y decline being 0.55 points and the growth for Q1 2012 being 0.05%).
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