YEREVAN, July 15. /ARKA/. The amount of lending to residents by 21 Armenia-based commercial banks exceeded 1,819.5 billion drams in May 2014, an increase of 0.5% from April, the Central Bank said in a statement posted on its official website.

According to the Central Bank, the lending in Armenia’s national currency, the dram, dropped by 0.4% to over from April. The lending to residents in foreign currencies increased by 1.1 % to about 1,138 billion drams.

Consumer loans accounted for 21.8% of the overall lending totaling about 402.7 billion drams as of the end of April (up 1.3 %). Trade accounted for about 18.5% in overall lending (344.6bln drams, 5% decline compared to April), followed by processing industry (9.7%, over 180.6bln drams, 0.3% increase against the month before). ($ 1 – 407.66 drams). -0-