17:41 - 1.08.2019

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August 1, Fineko/abc.az. Central Bank’s chair Elman Rustamov stated at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting on socio-economic questions that lending activity in Azerbaijan keeps on active. Over the first 6 months of 2019 country’s lending increased by 3.6%. But at the same time, this growth was observed mainly on consumer loans (by 9%), while business loans and loans in the real sector decreased slightly (by 0.3%).

Rustamov stressed that growth of consumer loans should be closely monitored.

"In order to avoid problems tomorrow, we should monitor the growth of population’s debt burden as a whole, and ensure to make the portfolio of the banking sector to approach to 50%. Today, there is considerable liquidity in the banking sector. But we still see that the sector of giving of business loans is not developing at present. Apparently, we need to take all-round regulatory and incentive measures to ensure these loans will be directed fpr the real sector as a whole and would support the domestic investment process in the country," Rustamov emphasized.