YEREVAN, December 20. /ARKA/. IMF newly appointed Resident Representative to Armenia, Mark Horton, finds loan interest rates in Armenia too high.

Answering the question ARKA News Agency correspondent put up to him, he said that spreads are too high in Armenia.

He also pointed out big difference between loan and deposit interests.

Horton thinks that this situation is due to some factors, such as competition in the finance sector and projections of risks.

In his opinion, it would be reasonable to lower loan interest rates. It will be not so easy to do it imperatively, he said, but it would be useful for economic growth.

According to the central bank’s figures, interests on up-to-one-year deposits in drams rose by 16% over eleven months of this year and reached 9.04% by late November.

Longer-than-one-year dram deposits rose 0.3% to 10.42%.

Up-to-one-year deposits in foreign currencies reached 5.68% (6.2% eleven-month increase) and longer-term deposits 8.36% (0.8% decrease).

Dram loan interests leapt 2.4% to 19.52% and interests on longer-term loans jumped 3% to 17.58%, while interests on foreign shorter-than-one-year currency loans sank 14.5% to 12.05% and longer-term loans plunged 12.5% to 13.04%. --0---