Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.4
Trend
Azerbaijani banks increased lending to the economy by 19.7 percent in January-August 2014, compared to the same period of 2013, the Azerbaijani Central Bank (CBA) said in its report on Oct.4.
The banks issued loans totaling 17.308.9 billion AZN, including over 12.690.7 billion AZN (73.3 percent) in national currency and 4.618.2 billion AZN (26.7 percent) in freely convertible currency as of Sept.1, according to the CBA report.
By comparison, the figure exceeded 14.455.07 billion AZN (around 10.261.4 billion AZN in national currency and over 4.193.7 billion AZN in freely convertible currency) in January-August 2013.
Of the total portfolio, loans worth 938.8 million AZN (5.4 percent) were overdue compared to 764.8 million AZN (5.3 percent) as of January-August 2013.
The statistics of overdue loans does not include similar loans of Aqrarkredit non-banking credit institution. Overdue loans increased by 22.8 percent over a year.
Short term loans amounted to about 3.586.4 billion AZN (including overdue loans worth 411.4 million AZN) compared to around 3.342.4 billion AZN (including overdue loans worth 355.6 million AZN) as of January-August 2013. The volume of short term loans in the economy increased by 7.3 percent over a year.
The volume of long term loans exceeded 13.722.6 billion AZN, including 527.3 million AZN in overdue loans compared to about 11.112.7 billion AZN, including 409.1 million AZN of overdue loans as of January-August 2013. The long term loans increased by 23.5 percent over a year.
The credit portfolio of the only state bank in the country, the International Bank of Azerbaijan, exceeded 5.977.2 billion AZN with the specific weight of 34.5 percent, while private banks issued loans worth around 10.829.6 billion AZN with a specific weight of 62.6 percent.
The remaining 2.9 percent fell to the share of non-bank credit organizations. They issued 502.1 million AZN, according to the CBA.
Some 44 banks operate in Azerbaijan.
The official exchange rate on Oct.4 is 0.7844 AZN/USD.