Baku, Azerbaijan, April 1
By Fikret Dolukhanov – Trend:
The aggregate capital of Uzbek commercial banks increased by 2.3 times and reached 20.7 trillion soums in 2017, according to the statement made during the session of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan.
According to the Uzbek media, the representatives of the Senate heard Chairman of the Board of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan Mamarizo Nurmuratov’s report about the bank’s activity in 2017.
"Monetary policy was carried out in the country in terms of maintaining high inflationary pressure and transition to an active phase of structural transformation in the economy, including the liberalization of foreign exchange policy and foreign trade activity,” Nurmuratov said. “Therefore, the main attention was paid to the effective use of monetary policy tools."
He added that the Central Bank strengthened the requirements to the level of capitalization and liquidity of commercial banks and in June 2017 increased the refinancing rate from 9 to 14 percent.
At the same time, in order to prevent liquidity shortage that arose due to high growth rates of lending, mechanisms were introduced to provide commercial banks with refinancing loans in the second half of 2017.
According to the Uzbek president’s decree dated September 2, 2017 "On Priority Measures for Liberalizing Currency Policy", beginning from September 2017, a market mechanism for determining the exchange rate of the national currency was introduced. The restrictions were also imposed on the sale, purchase and use of foreign currency for the population and business entities.
The total amount of the drawn deposits of commercial banks increased 1.6 times and amounted to 58.7 trillion soums. The total amount of assets of banks doubled and as of January 1, 2018, amounted to 166.6 trillion soums.
The capital adequacy ratio increased up to 18.8 percent, which is 1.8 times more than international norms.
According to the report, as a result of the continued implementation of the active lending policy by banks, the total amount of credit investments in the real sector of the economy increased 2.1 times and reached 110.6 trillion soums. In particular, commercial banks allocated loans in the amount of 16.1 trillion soums to finance investment projects, which is 1.3 times more than in 2016.
"Commercial banks allocated loans in the amount of 19.6 trillion soums, including micro-loans - 4 trillion soums, in particular, 2.8 trillion soums of loans - to encourage the development of women's entrepreneurship, 3.6 trillion soums - services and 490.3 billion soums - family entrepreneurship and handicrafts to render financial support to small businesses and private entrepreneurs," the report said.
Commercial banks issued mortgage loans worth 1.8 trillion soums for the construction of housing in rural areas upon standard projects to improve the living conditions of the rural population.
The measures implemented in the banking system in 2017 served to improve the effectiveness of the monetary policy of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan, further strengthen the financial stability of the banking system, its role in the development of entrepreneurship and participation in investment processes, as well as strengthened the country's macroeconomic stability.
When discussing the report, the representatives of the Senate made suggestions and recommendations on further improvement of the activity of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan.
The measures were proposed to be strengthened to ensure compliance with the requirements for capital adequacy, liquidity and stability of commercial banks within the requirements of international principles of banking supervision and other measures.
The need for timely and high-quality execution of tasks was stressed to improve the level of accessibility of banking services, ensure the protection of consumer rights of banking services, improve the quality and culture of serving the population and business entities, envisaged upon the president’s decree dated March 23, 2018 "On additional measures to increase the availability of banking services".
It is necessary to pay special attention to the measures to improve the business and investment sphere, achieve the necessary conditions for ensuring price stability by minimizing the impact of monetary factors of monetary policy on inflation.
A corresponding resolution of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan was adopted following the discussion.