Azerbaijan sees rise in lending in national currency

Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18

By Azad Hasanli – Trend:

As of early March 2018, Azerbaijan's credit organizations reduced loan disbursements by 1.7 percent up to 11,561.1 million manats compared to the fourth quarter of 2017, the Azerbaijani Central Bank said in a report.

According to the report, the amount of overdue loans increased by 4.56 percent up to 1,700.9 million manats for the year. The share of overdue loans increased from 13.8 percent to 14.7 percent for the same period.

In 2017, the loan portfolio of banks and non-banking credit organizations amounted to 11,757.8 million manats. As for overdue loans, the amount of overdue loans varied from 1.6 billion manats to 1.89 billion manats for 2017.

Lending in national currency amounted to 7,007.3 million manats as of early March 2018 (a 0.8 percent increase since early 2018) with a specific weight of 60.6 percent.

Lending in foreign currency amounted to 4,553.8 million manats (a 5.2 percent decrease since early 2018) with a specific weight of 39.4 percent.

The amount of short-term loans amounted to 2,145.4 million manats, long-term loans - 9,415.7 billion manats.

Distribution of the loan portfolio by economic sectors (in late January 2018):

Meanwhile, 15.7 percent (1,814 billion manats) of all loans in the country accounted for state banks in Azerbaijan, 80.7 percent (9,333 billion manats) - private banks, 3.6 percent (413.9 million manats) - non-bank credit organizations.

Thirty banks operate in Azerbaijan, including two state-owned banks and over 120 non-banking credit organizations.

(1.7 AZN = $1 on April 18)