ArmInfo.The Union of Banks of Armenia (UBA) pointed to a strong correlation between the activity of the sectors of the economy and the growth of lending. In particular, as the Executive Director of the UBA Seyran Sargsyan noted during a press conference on May 19, the increase in lending in Armenia was registered in those areas that managed to recover or not suffer during the coronavirus crisis and in the post-war period.
In this regard, he named the construction sector, where the volume of lending increased by 2%, interconnected with which, mortgage loans increased by 7%, the growth in volume was also recorded for agricultural loans - by 4%. At the same time, according to Sargsyan, a decrease is observed in lending to the industrial sector - by 2%, trade - by 0.2%, transport and communications - by 1%, as well as the volume of consumer loans - by 1%.
In total, as he said, according to the results of the Q1 2021, the credit investments of the banking system of Armenia amounted to 4.1 trillion drams, yielding to the indicator of the previous quarter by 1.5% or 64 billion drams, and in y-o-y terms increased by 6.9% or 265 billion drams.
Sargsyan explained the decrease in volumes by writing off a large amount of funds due to the coronavirus pandemic and the war. At the same time, he stressed that at the moment the process of lending in Armenia is actively going on, although it has slowed down the pace, which is the reason for the recorded modest y- o-y growth. The head of UBA also said that 49% of the total loan portfolio of the banking system of Armenia falls on lending to the economy, 41% on loans to individuals and 10% on interbank loans. At the same time, he noted that, in the loan portfolio, the shares of the currency and AMD components, having come close to each other already at the end of 2020, at the end of the Q1 2021, for the first time in a long time, became equal (50/50). In the deposit portfolio, the gap between foreign currency and AMD deposits also decreased, amounting to 54% and 46%, respectively, at the end of 2020, with the continuation of this trend in Q1 2021 - to 53% and 47%. With regard to interest rates on loans, answering ArmInfo's question, Sargsyan noted that, in his opinion, interest rates will not undergo any special changes in the near future. <Changes that may have occurred have already taken place. Therefore, if there are no stressful situations, significant changes in interest rates should not be expected,> he said.
At the same time, the head of the UBA drew attention to the fact that in the areas in which activities were suspended or terminated due to the coronavirus, along with the slowdown in lending, interest rates also increased, in other sectors there were no significant changes in interest rates.
To note, according to the Statistical Committee of the Republic of Armenia, in Q1 2021, the volume of industrial production decreased by 3.9% per annum, trade - by 5.6%, services - by 8.1%, gross agricultural production - by 1%, while in the growth were the construction sector - by 4.7% and the energy complex - by 1.4%.
