Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Dec. 27 / Trend D. Azizov /
Uzbek commercial banks have allocated five trillion soums in loans to small private businesses, or 31 per cent more compared to the same period last year, the Central Bank said today.
Some 1.8 trillion soums were allocated to enterprises producing food and industrial products.
The volume of microfinance services as a whole hit 956 billion soums for projects developing family and individual businesses, including 451 billion soums to attract women to entrepreneurship.
Around 45 billion soums were allocated to finance business projects implemented by young entrepreneurs or twice more than in the same period last year.
The measures taken to support and improve the business climate in the country have expanded commercial banks' consumer lending volumes, the regulator said.
Loans allocated by the banks for 11 months to purchase modern household appliances totalled over 320 billion soums, including consumer loans for young families which were used to purchase household appliances manufactured in Uzbekistan amounting to 71 billion soums.
At present the banks finance housing projects worth 278 billion soums, envisaging the construction of 148 apartment buildings.
Young families were provided with mortgage loans by the banks to the sum of 210 billion soums for 15 years to purchase flats.
The Uzbek banking system is currently represented by 30 banks, including three state, five with foreign capital, 13 joint stock and nine private.
The total assets of the Uzbek commercial banks increased by 26.8 per cent to 34.8 trillion soums in Jan.-Sept. 2012 compared to 2011. The total loan portfolio of banks in the republic has increased by 20.8 per cent to 18.9 trillion soums. The total volume of deposits attracted by the banks increased by 11.1 per cent to 20.4 trillion soums and aggregate bank capital 6.9 per cent to 5.7 trillion soums since early 2012.