Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 1
By Rashid Shirinov – Trend:
The amount of loans of second-tier banks of Kazakhstan to agriculture, forestry and fisheries in December 2018 amounted to 489.7 billion tenge, which is 29.6 percent less than in December 2017, Trend reports via Finprom.kz.
This is the first decline in recent years. In December last year, such loans amounted to 695.2 billion tenge.
At the same time, the share of loans to the agricultural sector in the total loans to the economy decreased from 5.5 to 3.7 percent year-on-year.
As for lending to small businesses in the agricultural sector, the volume of loans in December 2018 decreased by 45.4 percent year-on-year to 198.2 billion tenge.
Despite the general decline in lending, the Fund of Financial Support for Agriculture provides a huge support to small businesses in the agricultural sector. In 2018, the Fund issued 53.8 billion tenge, which is 12.1 percent more than a year earlier. This year, the Fund plans financing in the amount of 50.1 billion tenge.
At the same time, financing of agriculture by investors is increasing: in 2018, the investments in fixed capital of the agro-industrial complex reached 290.6 billion tenge, 6.4 percent more than in 2017.
(374.96 KZT = 1 USD on Mar. 1)
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