YEREVAN, February 14. /ARKA/. Armenian banks' lending in 2019 amounted to 3.572 trillion. drams, the executive director of the Union of Banks of Armenia Seyran Sargsyan told reporters on Friday. According to him, the lending was 10.1% or 327 billion drams more than in 2018.

“This does not mean that the overall lending grew by 327 billion drams. Their number is much higher, since the banks' portfolios also include repayments, which were relent as new loans, and in addition, 10.1% growth was ensured,” Sargsyan said.

He said in the fourth quarter of 2019 alone, the amount of lending increased by 61 billion drams or 1.8%.

For his part, the chairman of the Union of Banks of Armenia Mher Abrahamyan noted that some lending indicators are quite high. "Mortgage and consumer lending have seen an unprecedented growth due to a number of objective reasons," Abrahamyan said.

According to him, one of the reasons behind a substantial rise in mortgage lending is the government program of income tax refund for buyers of housing from the primary market.

"Over the past 1-2 years, real estate prices have also been rising, prompting the growth of mortgage lending, as people have certain expectations regarding purchase of real estate in the future, but price increase stimulates faster lending investments," Abrahamyan said.

Regarding consumer lending growth, Abrahamyan said it is due to positive expectations of consumers from economic growth, which are usually very high in the post-revolutionary period. To some extent, he said, the growth of consumer lending was also driven by the growth in the number of international tourist arrivals, reflected in larger lending to hotels, trade and services. -0-