Tajikistan is seeking ways to reduce loan interest rates. A special working group was set up in the country last year.
A roundtable to discuss issues related to regulation of interest rates in the banking system has taken place at the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT).
According to the NBT press center, the meeting has brought together senior representatives of lending agencies operating in the country.
It was noted that the working group that was set up last year had carried out a certain work to date. As a result of that work, weighted average interest rate fell from 28.2 percent in 2017 to 26 percent in 2018 and the volume of the provided loans increased from 7.7 billion somoni to 8.2 billion somoni respectively.
Speaking at the meeting, Ms. Lola Salimova, the deputy head of the National Bank of Tajikistan, reportedly pointed to the necessity of improving quality of banking services and providing transparency of operation of the lending agencies.
She reportedly also called on the lending agencies to support domestic entrepreneurship though offering loans with affordable interest rates.
The lending agencies were instructed to submit their proposals on regulation of interest rates I the banking system to the working group within a certain period, the NBT press center said.
According to data from Tajik central bank, the current weighted average interest rate for loans provided in the national currency amounts to 26.03 percent and the current weighted average interest rate for loans provided in the foreign currencies amounts to 17.22 percent.
The weighted average interest rate is the aggregate rate of interest paid on all debt. The calculation for this percentage is to aggregate all interest payments in the measurement period, and divide by the total amount of debt.
