Number of microloans in Uzbekistan up from 8 to 2,600
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 7
By Fakhri Vakilov-Trend:
Uzbekistan’s Central Bank has published statistics on allocated loans and the number of borrowers for 2019, Trend reports citing the Central Bank of the country.
According to the report, over 2019 the indicator of the debt burden of the population has grown significantly (by 5.3 percent) and now stands at 34.7 percent.
Microloans have shown the greatest growth in recent years. If in 2017 there were no loans at all, and in July 2018 there were only eight microloans, then in July 2019 their number increased to 2,600. This represents 25.8 percent of the total number of loans issued.
Microloans became very popular; over this year the number of borrowers has increased 325 times.
This happened despite the fact that the average rate on microloans is the highest among all types of loans - at the beginning of last year it was 33.9 percent, and in 2019 rose to 32.4 percent.
The highest rate on debt burden on microloans was Andijan (73.3 percent) and Kashkadarya (61.4 percent) regions.
Meanwhile, at the end of July, Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a document increasing the availability of microfinance for the population. The maximum amount of a microloan increased to $5,254, microloan - up to $31,529 and microleasing - up to $63,058.
However, the same document prohibits the issuance of new microloans to the borrower who has outstanding debt.
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