YEREVAN, on March 28. /ARKA/. The overall external debt of Armenian commercial banks and credit organizations in the fourth quarter of 2011 soared by 10.2% from the previous quarter to $855.9 million (from $776.1 million), the Central Bank said in its quarterly bulletin. It said commercial banks and lending institutions borrowed in the 4th quarter last year a total of $661.9 million and spent $580.7 million to repay their debts.
According to the Central Bank, at the end of 4th quarter the main creditor countries were Russia, whose share in the total debt dropped to 15.7% from 16.9% in the previous quarter, Luxembourg, whose share fell to 11.9% from 12.2% Germany, whose share rose to 7.2% from 6.6%, Netherlands - 5.8% vs. 5.2% and France -4.9% vs. 5.5%.
Approximately 34.2% of loans in the fourth quarter were provided by international organizations. The average interest rate on loans provided to Armenian financial institutions rose to 5.6% from 5.2% in the third quarter.
At the same time about 53% of external loans were loans with floating interest rate (LIBOR, EURIBOR, government bonds) with an average maturity period of 4.3 years. During the reporting period, the share of short-term loans increased to 11.9% of all attracted loans. ($1 - 389.22 drams). -0-