Demand for foreign currency loans increases in Georgia

Tbilisi, Georgia, Feb. 28 By Nana Kirtzkhalia – Trend: As of February 1, 2015, Georgia’s commercial banks issued loans totaling 13.7 billion lari ($ 1 = 2.26 lari), which is 743.4 billion lari more than as of late December 2014. The volume of loans issued in January in the national currency increased by 3.5 million lari (0.1 percent) compared to December 2014, while in foreign currency - by 739.9 million lari (9.4 percent), the Georgian National Bank told Trend. As of February 1, the Georgian commercial banks issued the loans in national currency worth 1.4 billion lari to the resident-legal entities which is by 3.1 percent or 78.2 million lari less than as of late December 2014 and in foreign currency - by 5.2 billion lari. This exceeds the same index as of 2014 by 8.3 percent or 402.5 million lari. Most of the loans issued to the legal entities accounted for trade - 30.4 percent. The lending of this area by commercial banks increased by four percent or 77.5 million lari and reached two billion lari in January compared to December 2014. During this period, a total volume of the Georgian commercial banks’ lending to the industry (24.9 percent) amounted to 1.7 billion lari, which is 4.6 percent or 73.1 million lari more than as of 2014. Around 0.7 percent of issued loans accounted for the construction industry in January. The volume of lending to this sector is 469.5 million lari, which is 10.9 percent or 46.3 million lari more than in December 2014. The Georgian commercial banks increased lending of the physical entities by 3.8 percent or 233 million lari in January 2015. The total amount of loans delivered to the physical entities as of January 2015 amounted to 6.4 billion lari. Edited by CN Follow us on Twitter @TRENDNewsAgency