KULOB, March 19, 2009, Asia-Plus — Over the first two months of this year, Kulob banks have provided totaling 8,955,259 somoni in loans, which is nearly three times fewer than in the same period of last year, according to the branch of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) in Kulob.
In January-February2008, local banks provided 24,403,528 somoni in loans.
The source has attributed the significant decrease in the loan volumes to lack of spare funds to provide loans.
The agrarian sector accounted for 34.1 percent of loans allocated by Kulob banks in January-February 2009, 33.4 percent of loans has gone to supporting development of commerce and small entrepreneurship, and 32.5 percent has gone to financing industrial construction, transportation and communications sectors in the region.
The source added that 17,013 local borrowers now owed 95,962,558 somoni to Kulob banks.



