ArmInfo.It is too early to talk about the threat of overheating in the consumer lending market. Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia Martin Galstyan expressed a similar opinion during a press conference on March 12.
Noting that the consumer portfolio is growing within reasonable limits, he said that in the first month of this year its growth was 2 percent. In 2023, consumer lending grew by 24%, approaching historical trends. However, he did not rule out that after the boom in the construction sector and the growth of mortgage lending, a certain increase in consumer lending will follow. "I In our typical scenarios, we talked about the possibility of such development, which should be monitored. But it is not so scary," Galstyan said.
Meanwhile, according to the Financial Rating of Armenian Banks as of December 31, 2023, prepared by ArmInfo IC, the volume of consumer loans, having increased by 24% over the year, exceeded 2.3 trillion drams ($5.7 billion). The volume of mortgage lending increased by 28%, reaching 1.1 trillion drams ($2.7 billion). However, it is worth noting that about 44% of non-performing loans (NPL) accumulated in the consumer loan portfolio, more than halves of which were classified as bad by risk group, with a y-o-y growth of 26%.
