YEREVAN, August 26. /ARKA/. In the first half of 2022, the loan portfolio of 17 Armenia-based banks increased by 28 billion drams or 0.7% to about 3.99 trillion drams, the executive director of the Union of Armenian Banks (UBA) Seyran Sargsyan told a press conference today.

He said compared to the first quarter of this year, the lending decreased by 3.1% or 127 billion drams. "The 2020-21 portfolio reduction has not yet fully recovered," Sargsyan added.

According to him, the share of consumer loans in the total portfolio stood at 23% at the end of June, 2022; that of mortgages – at 20%, the share of lending to industry was 14%, to trade - 13%, to construction sector - 9%, to services - 7% and to agriculture - 6%.

Also, the share of loans provided to the financial sector was 7%, to transport and communication - 3% and to other sectors - 4%.

However, as Sargsyan noted, in the first half of the year, not all areas saw a rise in lending. "For example, the lending to  transport and communications sectors decreased by 20.3%, to services sector by 8.9%, to industry by 2.2% and to trade by 2%.

At the same time, according to him, 0.4% growth was registered in consumer loans, 1.6% in agriculture, 4.2% in construction, 10.3% in mortgage lending and 13.5% in loans provided to financial organziations.

Sargsyan said that 44.2% of the loan portfolio is made up of loans to individuals (about 1.82 trillion drams), while 44.4% are loans to the economy (about 1.83 trillion drams).

Also, 60% of the loan portfolio are loans issued in Armenian currency and 40% are loans issued in foreign currency.

"We are witnessing a considerable growth in loans provided in Armenian drams due to its dramatic revaluation," he said.

According to the Union of Banks of Armenia,  the total capital of all 17 comemrical banks in Armenia amounted to 1.14 trillion drams in the first half of 2022 (23% growth), assets – to 7.24 trillion drams (2.74% growth), lending to  3.99 trillion drams (0.7% growth), and deposits to  about 4.1 trillion drams (1.2% growth). ($1 - 404.94 drams). -0-