KULOB, January 22, 2009, Asia-Plus — In 2008, branches of banks in Khatlon’s Kulob region provided totaling 140,962,885 somoni (equivalent to some 40 US dollars) in loans to local enterprises, farming units and entrepreneurs, which was 78 million somoni more than in 2007, head of the branch of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) in Kulob Abdukarim Nematov said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, the volume of loans provided by branches of Amonatbonk (Tajikistan’s savings bank) increased from 10 million somoni in 2007 to 31 million in 2008.
“The volume of loans provided by Agroinvestbonk’s branches increased by 18 million somoni, the volume of loans provided by Tojik Sodirot Bonk’s (TSB) increased by 8 million somoni, and the volume of loans provided by TajPromBank increased by 5.5 million somoni,” Nematov said, noting that that 53.9 percent of the overall volume of loans provided last year went to supporting enhancement the agrarian sector in the region.
34 percent of loans were provided to commercial organizations and 11.6 percent of loans were provided to industrial enterprises.
As of January 1, 2009, the loan arrears have amounted to 101.979 million somoni


