YEREVAN, April 18 . / ARKA /. The share of loans provided in foreign currency decreased by 2 percentage points by the end of 2013 December to 63.7% in the total amount of lending, while the share of deposits in foreign currency increased by 0.7 percentage points to 71%, according to a Central Bank of Armenia report on the financial stability of the country in 2013.

According to Andranik Grigoryan, head of a Central Bank department in charge of stability and financial system development, the level of dollarization in the country did not actually change from the previous year.

According to Central Bank data, the amount of deposits in Armenian banks in 2013 amounted to 1.612.4 trillion drams, including 1.148.8 trillion drams of resident deposits. Of that amount the equivalent of 688.5 billion drams was in foreign currency.

The amount of loans provided by the banks at the end of last year stood at 1.798.2 trillion drams. Lending to residents stood at 1.743.7 trillion drams, including the equivalent of 1.076.5 trillion drams in foreign currency. -0-