Grape procurement companies to receive loan deferment due to economic  challenges

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.