Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 30
By Anvar Mammadov – Trend:
Consumer lending portfolio of Azerbaijani banks shrank in real terms by 2.35 billion manats during 2016, said Rufat Aslanli, chairman of Azerbaijan’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FIMSA).
He was addressing a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Economic Policy, Industry and Entrepreneurship in Baku Mar. 30.
The real decline in the consumer lending significantly exceeds the nominal decline, according to Aslanli.
“Last year, the consumer lending decreased by 20 percent, or about 1.2 billion manats. But this is a nominal reduction. In real terms, portfolio reduction was even higher, as it should also be taken into account that half of consumer loans were issued in foreign currency,” he said.
“After we restricted issuance of loans in foreign currency, lending volume decreased and, accordingly, the actual reduction amounted to 2.35 billion manats,” Aslanli said.
(1.7238 manats = $1 on Mar. 30)