YEREVAN, November 22. / ARKA /. Armenian banks’ lending to state-owned enterprises in the third quarter of 2013 increased by 18.8 % from the previous quarter to about 88.6 billion drams.

According to the banks’ interim financial statements for the third quarter, the total amount of outstanding lending and other borrowings amounted to 1.702.3 trillion drams as of September 30, up from 1. 677.1 trillion drams in the second quarter. In fact, state-owned enterprises accounted only for 5.21 % of the total loan portfolio of the banks.

The leading bank in the third quarter by size of lending to private enterprises was Ardshiinvestbank, which accounted for 27.7 % of the total lending. Some 15.2% or 24.5 billion drams of its credit portfolio were loans provided to state-owned enterprises.

Other leaders by size of lending to private companies were Areximbank- Gazprombank Group (20.2 billion drams), VTB Bank (Armenia) (13.6 billion drams), Artsakhbank (11.3 billion drams) and Unibank (10. 8 billion drams) .

There are 21 banks in Armenia which run 484 branches. ($ 1 - 404.94 drams). -0-