Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 16
By Emin Aliyev - Trend:
The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) hopes that the business loan rates in Azerbaijan will be reduced up to single-digit level, CBA head Elman Rustamov told media today.
"Much has been said that the loan rates are high in Azerbaijan," Rustamov said. "One must pay attention to the neighboring countries, European countries, the U.S. The loan rates in our country are indeed higher compared to these countries. This issue is on the spotlight of the Central Bank. We are constantly conducting a dialogue with the country's largest banks in the area of consumer lending. This topic has been recently discussed on the board of the Central Bank."
According to Rustamov, it is also important to pay attention to improving the financial literacy of the population.
"The Central Bank is making consistent efforts in this direction," Rustamov said. "Customers must have the information. They must be careful when reading the credit agreement. The country has a high demand for consumer loans. This segment is being rapidly developed. We are constantly monitoring the situations. We are interested in directions of loan delivery, including repair, organizing weddings, purchase of equipment and others. The demand in this market prevails over supply. I hope that all the above-mentioned measures will lead to the fact in the future that the consumer credit market will be the supply market. Afterwards, the business loan segment will be the same supply market. Their rates can be reduced to a single-digit level in the future."