Azerbaijan, Baku, May 3 / Trend, A. Akhundov /
The Azerbaijani Central Bank (CBA) is closely monitoring the growth of consumer crediting in the country, CBA chairman Elman Rustamov told media today.
"We are thoroughly watching the growth of consumer loans," he said. "This is a new product. The dynamics are high, but it comes from a very low base. Several banks are active. We closely cooperate with them. We regularly meet with them. Of course, we warn them about possibly "raising the volume" on things. This is advisory by nature. But we have begun to conduct certain operations in the regulatory area. They must not exceed a certain level. We will prevent new risks in the banking sector."
Regarding bad loans, Rustamov stressed that the majority of ones still around are left over from the economic crisis.
"The global financial crisis had an impact on Azerbaijan," he said. "The banks had bad loans during that period. The bulk of them are left over from the crisis. The banks create reserves on the main part of the bad loans."
Consumer lending increased by more than 40 percent with an average growth in the banking system of 20-25 percent in 2012, which is not a threatening figure.