Banks provide 2% less loans in national currency, amid 20% growth of forex loans

Armenian banks lent 2.077 trillion drams in April 2015 (a 0.8% growth versus March and 12.8% growth year over year). Exclusive of prolonged and overdue loans, the credit exposures of the banks totaled 1.912 trillion drams.

By preliminary data of the Armenian Central Bank, loans in terms the national dram (AMD loans) grew 1,6% in April to 642.1 billion drams accounting for 33.6% of total loans (exclusive of the prolonged and overdue ones).  Forex loans grew 0.7% to 1270 billion drams or 66.4%.  AMD loans fell 2% y-o-y amid 20% growth of forex loans.

According to the source, the interests on AMD loans totaled 17.05% in April versus 19.11% in March and 15.82% in April 2014. The exchange rate of AMD/USD for April 30 2015 was 476.42AMD/$1USD.