ArmInfo. In Armenia, the repayment terms of preferential loans for purchasing grapes have been extended by 6 months. The corresponding decision was made during a government meeting on January 16.
As stated in the explanatory note to the document, within the framework of the program, loans for purchasing grapes were provided until September 1, 2022. The repayment period was up to 3 years with a 1- year grace period and a subsidy of 10 percentage points. From September 1 to December 30, the repayment period was extended up to 4 years with a 2 - year grace period (11 p.p. were subsidized). As noted by the Ministry of Economy, the recent decrease in the value of the Russian ruble has resulted in enterprises facing substantial losses and challenges in repaying their loans when converting payments received in foreign currency to Armenian drams. Additionally, the delays in delivery caused by adverse weather conditions at the border checkpoint "Upper Lars" and the extended storage of cognac exporting vehicles for inspection have further complicated loan servicing. It is noted that there will be no need for additional financial resources to be allocated from the state budget to the Ministry of Economy for the implementation of the project. Thus, the program budget for 2025, 2026, and 2027 was calculated by averaging the actual portfolios for 2022 and 2023, which totaled 19.58 billion AMD, and the 2024 portfolio, which was around 16 billion AMD. Thus, the allocated budget for the program will cover the above-mentioned additional subsidy amounts. Calculations for additional subsidy amounts were based on the actual portfolio of approximately 11.9 billion AMD in loans provided for grape procurement under the 2022 program, as well as the budget guarantee of around 5.1 billion AMD for a portion of the portfolio.
