YEREVAN, August 16. / ARKA /. The Union of Banks of Armenia and the German-Armenian Fund (GAF) announced the second phase of a loan program designed for agriculture, which is implemented with the government’s assistance.

In a joint press release the Union of Banks of Armenia and the German-Armenian Fund (GAF) said the government decided July 28 to allocate 7.5 billion drams from a Russian loan for agricultural lending.

Loans will be provided by commercial banks and part of interest rates will be subsidized by the government. The program will be implemented by six commercial banks - ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank, Ardshininvestbank, Armbusinessbank, Inecobank, Converse Bank and ProCredit Bank.

Under a government decision of April 1, low-interest loans at 14% rate are available for farmers and 4% of the interest rate are subsidized by the government. The amount of subsidy is 200 million drams. Loans are provided in AMD. An average loan size is 625,000 drams. ($ 1 - 368.03 AMD). -0-