YEREVAN, March 6. / ARKA /. Armenian commercial banks’ and credit organizations’ external debt surged last year by 16.8% to over $1.4 billion, the Central Bank said in its 4th quarter bulletin. In the fourth quarter alone it jumped by 22%.

According to the bulletin, the commercial banks and credit organizations attracted last year $1.157 billion of foreign borrowings and spent also $847.1 million to repay earlier attracted loans and interests.

In the third quarter, 22.5% of foreign lending were long-term loans, with 33.6% coming from the Netherlands, 8.5% from Malta, 6.1% from Luxembourg, 4.2% from Kazakhstan, and 32.9% from international lending organizations

At the end of the fourth quarter of 2014 the main creditors of Armenian commercial banks and credit organizations were Russia, which accounted for 17.2%, the Netherlands (12.5%) ​​and Luxembourg (12.1%). Besides, approximately 28.5% of the loans were provided by international organizations.

The weighted average interest rate on the loans was 6.3%. About 44.1% of foreign lending were loans with floating interest rate (LIBOR, EURIBOR, etc.). The average maturity period was 3.8 years.

During the reporting period, the share of short-term loans increased to 18% of the attracted credits ($ 1 - 479.59 drams). -0-