Azerbaijan, Baku, March 14 / Trend A.Akhundov /
Azerbaijani banks have increased their lending to the economy in January by 1.35 percent and by 10.2 percent during the year, the Central Bank's statistical report said on Wednesday.
According to the CBA, at the beginning of February 2012 banks issued more than 10.084 million manat, including over 6.527 million manat (64.7 percent) in national currency and over 3.556 million manat (35.3 percent) in freely convertible currency.
For comparison, at the beginning of January, the figure exceeded 9.95 million manat and as of February 1, 2011 the figure exceeded 9.149 million manat.
Of the total portfolio, loans amounting to 643.1 million manat (6.38 percent) were due compared to 633.8 million manat as of Jan 1, 2011.
Short-term loans as of early February, 2012 amounted to 3.09 billion manat (including 331.9 million manat of overdue loans) against over 3.051 million manat (326.2 million manat of overdue loans) as of January 1; over 2.551 million manat (253.9 million manat of overdue loans) - on February 1, 2011. During the year, short-term credit in the economy grew by 21.11 percent. As of early February, 2012, 34.38 per cent of short-term lending fell to freely convertible currency.
Long-term loans as of early February 2012 exceeded 6.994 million manat (including 311.2 million manat of overdue loans) against over 6.899 million manat (307.6 million manat of overdue loans) by January 1, and over 6.598 million manat (243 million manat) - on February 1, 2011. During the year, long-term loans grew by six percent. At the end of Jan, 2012, 35.66 percent of long-term lending fell to freely convertible currency.
The official exchange rate is 0.7864 AZN to $1 on March 14.