YEREVAN, November 2. /ARKA/. Interest rates on consumer and business loans provided by Armenian banks have not risen noticeably, Martin Galstyan, chairman of the Central Bank, told a Tuesday press conference.

Galstyan explained that Armenian banks have earned quite large profits this year, generated from non-interest income, such as commission and currency conversions fees.

"Due to the generation of these profits, banks have raised interest rates much more gently than the Central Bank has raised the refinancing rate," he explained.

The chairman of the National Assembly's Economic Affairs Committee Babken Tunyan stated earlier that in the first 9 months of 2022 Armenia-based commercial banks earned 188 bln drams in net profit (after taxation), up 3 times from the same time span of 2021. He said in the third quarter alone, the bank's profit totaled about 77 billion drams.

Tunyan said the bulk of profit was generated by commission payments, income from the purchase and sale of currency, etc., unlike the previous years, when most of the profit came from interest.

"The rise in banks’ profitability is not bad, but the unprecedented rise in profits, changes in its structure, as well as the factors contributing to the sharp increase and its impact on the economy require additional attention," he said. ($1 - 395.19 drams) -0-