BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 24. Bank Respublika OJSC has taken first place in the volume of soft loans issued to businesses in Azerbaijan in 2023, the Entrepreneurship Development Fund under the Ministry of Economy of Azerbaijan told Trend.
According to the information, this bank issued soft loans totaling 40 million manat ($23.5 million) to entrepreneurs during the reporting period.
The second position on the volume of business lending was taken by the International Bank of Azerbaijan (ABB) with 35.9 million manat ($21 million), and the third place was occupied by PASHA Bank (18.3 million manat ($10.7 million).
Rabitabank (17.6 million manat ($10.3 million)) and Expressbank (13.7 million manat ($8 million)) were also in the top 5 in terms of lending.
In terms of the number of soft loans granted for investment projects by entrepreneurs last year, the top 5 are as follows: Bank Respublika (1,129), Rabitabank (618), Aqrarkredit (300), AccessBank (295), and Yelo Bank (284).
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan's Entrepreneurship Development Fund financed 3,276 investment projects in 2023. The Fund issued soft loans totaling 193.8 million manat ($113.8 million).
The Fund informs that 46.4 percent of the issued loans were directed to the production of agricultural products, 43 percent to the production and processing of industrial products, 5.5 percent to the service sector, and 4.5 percent to tourism development projects. Local regions of the country accounted for 72 percent of soft loans, and Baku city and Absheron Economic Region accounted for 28 percent.
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