YEREVAN, February 3. /ARKA/. The demand for commercial bank loans in Armenia in 2021 may drop, the  chairman of the Central Bank Martin Galstyan told reporters on Tuesday.

He said  in 2020 the loan portfolio of Armenian banks had grown, driven largely by the government assistance measures designed for economic entities to help them offset the consequences of the coronavirus crisis, which amounted to  almost 160 billion drams and part of that money was loaned through the banks.

However, according to him, the trends that have been observed in recent months are causing concern that  the lending rate may slow down.

“It all depends on the assessment of customer needs. We are holding meetings with bank executives, whose message is that due to a certain decrease in income as well as the deterioration of the economic situation of companies, the  lending may be lower than in previous years,” Galstyan said.

He stressed that  the coronavirus crisis is not over yet, there was a war in Nagorno-Karabakh, therefore, some economy sectors have suffered more than others and it is unlikely that their lending will be carried out in the same volume as in previous years. Consequently, banks will revise their balance sheets to some extent.

 “We believe that the most important action that the government should take this year is to implement structural changes to stimulate the growth of the economy; in other words, the government should be able to implement as much of capital expenditures as possible, which may   increase the GDP   at least to the pre-war level,” Galstyan said. -0-