Head of Financial Stability Department of the Central Bank of Armenia, Vahe Vardanyan forecasted 20-25% growth in Armenian commercial banks portfolio in 2010.

“Given the 6% growth registered within first 5 months of the current year as well as growth of GDP and volumes of transfers to Armenia, the figure is realistic enough,” he told a news conference.

According to Vardanyan, the rise in prices for oil, copper and molybdenum allows for the expected increase of transfers and direct investments from Russia, as well as export volumes to positively influence the economy and revenue sharing in Armenia.

“Still, we’ll need several years to reach 80% growth observed in 2007,” he said.

He also informed that out of AMD 42 billion crediting growth in January-May 2010, AMD 16 billion was allocated to the field of trade, AMD 8,8 billion - to customer crediting, AMD 3 billion - to agriculture. The remaining sum was invested in production industry, with mortgage portfolio unchanged.