YEREVAN, July 8. /ARKA/. As part of Armenian government assistance programs, designed to help farmers overcome the socio-economic consequences of the coronavirus, the latter were provided with 18 thousand loans worth 37 billion drams, Deputy Minister of Economy Arman Khojoyan said at a press conference on Wednesday.

He said the amount was three times the amount of loans issued last year in the same time span. The deputy minister said also that according to the data provided by the Central Bank, 16.2 thousand loans totaling 23 billion drams were provided under the second assistance program

"Within the framework of the first program, companies engaged in agriculture were provided 6 billion drams worth loans," Khojoyan said.

In total, the Armenian government approved 22 assistance programs to counteract the economic consequences of coronavirus. Some of them were designed for agriculture, tourism, SMEs, microbusiness, IT and other industries, others for showing social support to various groups of the population.

Some of the programs have already been completed, some are still in the process, and the government is discussing new assistance opportunities for citizens. ($1 - 485.12 dram). --0--