Daniel Azatyan: in Armenia, highest lending growth was registered in  construction sector, with decrease in industrial sector 

ArmInfo.In Armenia, there was an increase in all lending sectors, except for industry, where  the volumes decreased by 1.2%, making 508.9 billion drams. Chairman of the Union of Banks of Armenia Daniel Azatyan stated during a press conference on February 20.

According to him, the highest growth rates were registered in the  construction sector - by 42.4% to 497.7 billion drams. At the same  time, Azatyan noted that he does not see any risks in this regard,  because there is a great potential for the growth of construction  volumes outside of Yerevan. In particular, referring to discussions  in the government on providing housing to forcibly displaced people  from Artsakh, he noted that this initiative will give new impetus to  housing construction, especially in the regions. 

"And this growth will not create problems, but, on the contrary, will  promote economic development and create new incentives," Azatyan  expressed his opinion. If the construction sector is the leader in  terms of growth rates, then the lion's share of the volume of credit  investments falls on mortgage lending (23% of the total volume or  1.073 trillion drams), with an increase over the year of 26.4% and  consumer lending (23% or 1.085 trillion drams), with a y-o-y growth  of 21.2%. Speaking about the latter, Azatyan noted that in comparison  with 2020 and 2021, when the banking system operated under  coronavirus and war conditions, the share of non-performing loans in  the consumer portfolio was quite high. But at the end of 2023, this  figure dropped to 0.4%, against 0.5% in 2022.

Next in terms of lending volumes comes the trade sector - 573 billion  drams, which exceeds the year-ago figure by 22%, the financial sector  - 406.8 billion drams, with an increase of 9.3%, agriculture - 272.2  billion drams, an increase of 20.3% per annum, transport and  communications - 105.5 billion drams, with a y-o-y increase of 22.5%.  In total, the portfolio of credit investments of the Armenian banking  system as of December 31, 2023 amounted to 5.2 trillion drams.