YEREVAN, June 23, /ARKA/. The share of bad credits in Armenia’s banking system may fall to before-the-crisis level of 4.5% at the end of the year, a senior official of Armenia’s Central bank said today.

Speaking at a news conference Vahe Vardanian, head of a department in charge of financial policy management, said the share of bad credits late last year comprised 6.5% falling to 5.6% now.

According to him, this figure is set to fall further due to increasing amount of new credits and absence of new bad credits in the last 2-3 months. According to Central Bank’s figures, the share of bad credits in the first half of 2009 rose to 10 percent.

Vahe Vardanian also predicted that the banking system’s full-year income may grow to 20 billion Drams, from 8.4 billion Drams in 2009. In his words, the sector has already secured 8 billion Drams in income this year. The main task of the Central Bank now is to implement a set of measures designed to reduce the dollarziation level, he said.

According to Central Bank’s figures, the dollarziation level dropped in May from April. Particularly, the overall volume of deposits in the national currency, the Dram, increased by 0.1% while deposits in foreign currency drooped by 3.5%. However, in May more loans in foreign currency were extended than in Drams. ($1 – 370.59 Drams).  -0-