YEREVAN, April 8. / ARKA /. Armenia’s Central Bank said after a March 26 meeting of its Board that in the first quarter of 2013 interest rates on loans stabilized somewhat.

It said the average interest rate on interbank repo as of March 15 was 8.4%, down 1.4 percentage points compared to the end of last year. The average interest rate in the primary market of government bonds maturing within 12 months was 9.7%, down by 0.6 pp, while the average interest rate on inter-bank loans was 7.7%, down by 0.3 pp compared with the end of 2012.

In the currency market the national currency, the dram, depreciated 1.5 percent as of March 15 against the U.S. dollar to 411.5 drams and euro declined by 0.6 percent, amounting to 535.7 drams.
In February 2013 the 12-month increase in the money and dram base was 20.9% and 13.0% respectively, while the share of dram deposits in total deposits grew by 19.0%, and that of deposits in foreign currency by 31.4%.

High lending rate persisted through February- 26.1% per annum, while the bulk of lending was in foreign currency.

According to the Central Bank of Armenia, the average interest rate on deposits in February was 9.2%, down from 9.6% in January, and the average interest rate on loans in February and January was 14.9%. -0-