YEREVAN, March 1. /ARKA/. Armenian commercial banks’ lending grew by 285.4 billion drams (13.6%) in 2017 January from the year before to the overall 2.4 trillion drams, the Central Bank of Armenia said today.

According to the Central Bank, loans to residents grew by 6% to 2.114.6 trillion drams The share of loans provided in foreign currency to residents continues to grow amounting to 65.2%. At the end of January 2017 foreign currency loans increased by 0.6% in one month to the equivalent of 1.378.2 trillion drams, while loans in Armenia’s national currency decreased by 1.3% to 736.4 billion drams.

Loans to corporate clients grew by 8.7% when compared to 2016 January to 1.212.8 trillion drams, of which 188.5 billion drams were in the national currency (a growth of 13.6%), and the equivalent of 1.024.4 trillion drams were in foreign currency (an annual growth of 7.8%).

Incidentally, loans provided to households continued to decline in January 2017, but only slightly. In particular, these loans stood at 777.4 billion drams in the beginning of the year, which was by 0.37% less than in January 2016. The decline was resulting from a 7.2% reduction in foreign currency lending, which fell to the equivalent of 291 billion drams, while loans in drams increased by 4.21% to 486.4 billion drams.

In January 2017 loans to non-residents fell by 9.1% to 290 billion drams. To date, there are 17 commercial banks operating in Armenia. ($ 1 - 486.71 drams) -0-