YEREVAN, May 26. /ARКА/. Seventeen Armenian commercial banks' loan portfolio grew by 0.5% or 19 billion drams in the first quarter of 2020 reaching 3 trillion and 762 billion drams, up from 3 trillion and 743 billion drams at the end of 2019, Executive Director of the Union of Banks of Armenia Seyran Sargsyan told reporters during an online press conference on Tuesday.

“In general, the loan portfolio has grown, but there are areas where lending decreased. For example, mortgage lending in the first quarter of 2020 increased by 10% to 394 billion drams, which is 12% of the total portfolio,' Sargsyan said.

According to him, lending to the construction sector grew by 11%, to agriculture - by 6%, consumer loans increased by 4% and loans provided to services also increased by 4%.

At the same time, lending to industry decreased by 7%, to transport and communications - by 13%, to trade - by 1%, financial resources provided to the financial sector also decreased by 16%.

"In fact, based on these indicators, we can say that the impact of the coronavirus crisis on certain areas of the economy is already obvious," Sargsyan said.

As for the structure of loans, he said that loans provided to economy account for 50.4% of the total portfolio, 40% are loans provided to individuals, and the remaining 9.6% are interbank loans and deposits.

He said also that over the past 10-11 years the amounts of loans provided in the national currency and US dollars have almost equalized. Thus, in the first quarter of 2019 some 51.8% of loans were in foreign currency and 48.2% - in drams.

According to the Union of Banks of Armenia, Armenian banks' profit  in the first quarter of 2020 increased by 7.2 billion drams from the same period in 2019  amounting  to 23.3 billion drams. Their total capital in the first three months of this year increased by 2.1% to 862 billion drams. The sector's assets amounted to 5 trillion and 907 billion drams, up from 5 trillion and 805 billion drams at the end of 2019. Their total liabilities amounted to 5 trillion and 45 billion drams, which is 85 billion drams or 1.7% more than at the end of 2019. And liabilities to customers during the reporting period decreased by 1.4% to 3 trillion and 427 billion drams. ($1 - 483.00 dram). -0-