YEREVAN, March 6. / ARKA /. Interest rates on term and demand deposits in Armenia-based commercial banks continue to decline, according to the Central Bank. Thus, interest rates on term 12-month and less deposits decreased by 4.39 percentage points from 13.55% in January 2016 to 8.96% in January 2017, while interest rates on deposits in USD fell from 6.17% to 4.19%.

At the same time the rates in January fell by 0.94% and 0.81 p.p. respectively when compared with the previous month.

Interest rates on more than 12 month deposits in drams decreased by 2.22 percentage points in 2017 January when compared to January last year to 12.39%, and the interest rates on deposits in USD fell by 1.38 percentage points to 5.78%.

Compared to the previous month the rates on deposits in drams in 2017 January increased slightly by 0.02 percentage points, and the rates on deposits in USD went down by 0.33 percentage points. It should be noted that interest rates on deposit are falling as a result of the Central Bank’s loose monetary policy. In particular, the Central Bank has cut the refinancing rate from 10.5% in June 2015 l to 6% in February 2017.

But despite this policy of the regulator, the average interest rates on loans in drams repayable in less than 12 months increased by 0.23 percentage points in 2017 January to 17.9% if compared to January 2016. However, interest rates on loans in USD declined during the reporting period by 2.36 percentage points to 7.67% in late 2017 January. -0-