Entrepreneurs in Armenia continue to actively use loans to develop their businesses. According to data from the Central Bank, in January 2024, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) received significant amounts of loans from commercial banks.
The total volume of loans provided to SMEs in January 2024 reached 1.5 trillion drams (about $3.8 billion). This is an increase of 14% compared to the same period last year, but a slight decrease of 0.3% compared to the previous month, December 2023.
Over the past two years, SME lending volumes have significantly increased. In January 2024, they increased by 18% compared to January 2022. It is interesting that around half of all loans are accounted for by micro-enterprises (44%), followed by small (31%) and medium-sized (25%) organizations.
In terms of activities, the largest volume of loans was directed towards trade (24.2%), followed by construction (21%), as well as manufacturing (10.3%) and agriculture (9%). Half of all loans were issued for long-term purposes, accounting for 52.3% of the total volume.
