YEREVAN, June 25./ARKA/. The foreign debt of Armenia’s commercial banks and credit organizations decreased by 12.8% to $1.03 billion in the first quarter 2013 against $1.17 billion  a quarter earlier, the Central Bank said in its 1Q summary report.

According to the source, the banks and credit organizations borrowed $ 541.3 million from foreign sources within the reported period. At the same time, they allocated $ 545.2 million for the debt service.

Some 6.7% of the lending accounted for long-term loans, of them 33.9% was allocated from Luxemburg, 21.8% --Russia, 14.1% -USA and 28% - international organizations.

The main lenders of the first quarter are said to be Russia (16.5%), Luxemburg (10.2%), the Netherlands (7.9%), Germany (5.1%) and international organizations (35.7%).
An average weighted interest rate of the loans fell by 5.7% from a quarter earlier.

Nearly 45.4% of the foreign loans are those with floating interest rates (LIBOR, EURIBOR, etc.). An average maturity period is 4.3 years.

The portion of short-term loans has risen to 10.6%. ($1 – 411.64 drams). —0-