YEREVAN, February 2, /ARKA/. In Q 4, 2010 the volume of lending provided by Armenian banks to resident customers, including deposits, factoring and leasing, grew 11.1% or 95.1 billion Drams from the previous quarter to a total of 955.9 billion Drams, the Central Bank of Armenia said in its monthly review of the banks’ performance in Q4, 2010.

It said the lending to financial sector grew 27% or 14. 9 billion Drams to 70 billion Drams; loans provided to industry grew 17.3% or 30.1 billion Drams to 203.8 billion Drams and loans to construction sector upped by 14.6% or 9.5 billion Drams to 74.8 billion Drams.

Consumer credits rose by 10% to 163.7 billion Drams, loans to trade sector by 6.1% to 184.8 billion Drams and credits to agriculture rose by 4.7% to 52.4 billion Drams.

According to the review, mortgage lending increased 3.4% or 2.9 billion Drams to 88.1 billion Drams, while lending to transport and communications sector dropped by 1.5% to 25.7 billion Drams. The largest portion of the lending- 21.33% - went to industrial sector, trade accounted for 19.34%, consumer credits for 17.13% and mortgage lending for 9.22%. Armenia has 21 banks which operate 408 branches. ($1 – 363,81 Drams). -0-