Foreign exchange loans account for 62% of total loan portfolio of Armenian banks as of Sept 2016

ArmInfo. Foreign exchange loans accounted for 62% or 1.351tln drams of the total loan portfolio in the banking system of Armenia as of Sept 2016. The year-over-year growth is 7.4%. The national currency loans accounted for 38% or 679.4bln drams of total with a 7.3% y-o- y growth. 

According to data of the Central Bank of Armenia provided to ArmInfo by the National Statistics Service, the bank lending increased 6.5% y-o-y to 2.189tln drams. The extended loans and NPL exclusive, the loans in the banking system of Armenia increased 7.3% y-o-y to 2.030tln drams.

As of September 2016, the extended loans and NPL accounted for 5.13% (5.9% a year ago)  and 2.13% (2.08% a year ago) of total loans, respectively. The share of NPL of Armenia banks increased 9.2% by September 2016 to 46.7bln drams, amid 7.4% decline of the extended loans to 112.3bln drams. The extended loans and NPLs are mainly long-term loans.

According to the statistics, the average interest rate on the loans in terms of the national dram was 17.44% in August 2016 (versus 18.86% a year ago). The exchange rate of the national dram against U.S. dollar was 474.75AMD/1USD on August 31 2016.