YEREVAN, November 11. /ARKA/. The number of depositors at Armenia’s banks has grown fourfold over the last seven years, and deposits have reached AMD 1.7 trillion, Arthur Javadyan, the head of the Central Bank of Armenia said Tuesday at an extraordinary session of the National Assembly.

In his words, financial intermediation in Armenia has developed a great deal in recent years. There are more than 1 million depositors and over 1.7 million deposits in the country now.

“The number of depositors rose by 327% in the last seven years,” Javadyan said. “Besides, the country population’s deposits totaled AMD 378 billion in late 2007, while now individuals’ deposits exceed AMD 1.1 trillion and the total amount of deposits AMD 1.7 trillion.”

The central bank head finds this indicator good even despite the fact that the bulk of these deposits are small in size.

He said that despite financial intermediation in Armenia is developing loan interest rates are not satisfactory though they are quite low in business lending.

According to the National Statistical Service of Armenia, residents’ deposits in Armenia’s commercial banks totaled AMD 1 405.8 billion in late September 2015 after shrinking 1.14% over the month.
Both dram and foreign currency deposits shrank in September as well. In particular, deposits in drams reduced 0.36% to AMD 495.7 billion and deposits in foreign currencies 1.6% to AMD 910.1 billion. ($1 – AMD 481.62). ---0----