Central Bank of Armenia: Armenian banking system activates economy lending

ArmInfo. Armenian banking system activates economy lending, Head of Financial System Stability and Development Department of CBA Andranik Grigoryan stated while presenting today report on Armenia's financial stability at year end -2015.

According to him the lending has grown in 4 months of this year along with the profitability of the banks.  There is also continuous interest of international financial organizations in the Armenian banks. Under the agreements with these organizations lending of SME, agricultural sector, renewable energy, mortgage lending etc is being conducted.

Touching upon the indicators of 2015 Grigoryan mentioned the fall of rates of lending and the share of non- performing loans in the total loan portfolio being 8%. At the same time growth of raised deposits according to him testifies to high level of confidence of physical and juridical entities in banking system of Armenia.

According to the Financial Rating of the Armenian Banks by the Agency of Rating Marketing Information (ArmInfo), in Q1 2016 lending to economy grew by 8.8% (versus the previous 15.4% rise) to 1.5 trillion AMD ($3.2 bln), and retail lending rose by 3.5% (versus previous 15.7% growth) to 745.7 bln AMD ($1.6 bln). In 2012, both segments experienced 31-37% grown. Afterwards they slackened growth to 8-19% in 2014, partly restoring the growth rates in corporate lending in Q1 2015, but slackening growth in retail lending. The share of the foreign exchange component in the aggregate loan book of the banking system increased from 62% to 67%, while the share of AMD component dropped from 38% to 33% (by April 2016). At the same time by April 2016 share of NPL reached 13.6% (versus 8.5% last year).