YEREVAN, December 24. /ARKA/. The government of Armenia will provide farmers with credit guarantees, Deputy Economy Minister Artak Kamalyan told reporters on Tuesday.

He said although the government runs several credit assistance programs designed specifically for farmers, including subsidizing interest rates on their loans, the latter are not available to all farmers because of their failure to ensure a collateral.

"We decided to launch a pilot program to create a Credit Insurance Fund, which will provide credit guarantees to farmers living in border communities, who cannot offer collateral," Kamalyan said.
He said the program will be developed in the first quarter of 2020 and implemented immediately.

According to him, the farmers will be able to take advantage of various loan subsidy types provided by the government. As an example, he said residents of border communities seeking loans in the amount of 3 million to 15 million drams, will be provided with guarantees to the tune of 30% of the loan.

He said also that in the first 11 months of 2019 some 8,000 farmers were registered as beneficiaries of a program subsidizing loans from 3 to 15 million drams, while the demand increased by 70%. ($1 - 478.32 drams). –0--