YEREVAN, December 28. /ARKA/. The total amount of deposits in Armenian banks grew by 9% in the outgoing year, the chairman of the Central Bank Artur Javadyan said last Friday. According to him, the growth was secured by a rise in private deposits, which he said is an indication of financial stability.

He said one of the major legislative changes made to encourage banks to extend more long-term loans was the Central Bank’s decision to reduce the amount of mandatory reserves for attracted long-term funds.

On October 26 the Armenian parliament passed also a bill to revise the law “On guaranteeing compensations for bank deposits of natural persons”, providing for an increase in the size of insured deposits of individuals by 2.5 times. As a result, the maximum amount of insured bank deposit in Armenian currency grew to 10 million drams from 4 million drams, while the amount of deposits in foreign currency has been raised to the equivalent of 5 million drams from 2 million drams. According to the regulator, the move allows to insure 95% of all deposits.

According to the National Statistical Service, the amount of resident deposits in the banks as of late August 2015 stood at 1.422.1 trillion drams (a decline of 0.8% from the previous month). The deposits in drams stood at 497.5 billion drams (a decline of 3%), while deposits in foreign currency grew by 0.4% to the equivalent of 924.5 billion drams.

Javadyan also said the lending has soared by more than five times in the last 7 years, despite adverse economic developments across the globe and Armenia. He said the lending grew by 26% a year on average, while the ratio of lending to GDP grew by 3.5 times to 48 percent. ($ 1 - 478.97 drams). --0-