YEREVAN, February 17. /ARKA/. The ministry of agriculture does not know how to solve the problem of high interest rates on agricultural loans, Armenian minister of agriculture Ignaty Arakelyan told a news conference today.

"I have no solutions. It is the most difficult question today that should be tackled by the Central Bank and other banks. I am aware that discussions on this are in progress," Arakelyan said.

According to the minister, local banks are also in dire straits. They have unpaid loans. Speaking about insolvent farmers who take loans at high interest rates from commercial structures (up to 24%), Arakelyan said it is their personal choice.

According to statistical data, the share of non-performing and written-off assets of Armenian residents stood at 6.13% at the end of 2016. In agriculture, the share of non-performing assets at the end of December 2016 stood at 0.52%.

According to the Central Bank, agricultural loans provided to residents amounted to 136.3 billion drams as of late 2016, a decline of 0.98% from the previous year. Agricultural loans in Armenia are available at 14% interest rate, 6% of which are subsidized by the government. -0-