Taleh Kazimov: Sustainability of Azerbaijan’s banking sector in spotlight

The sustainability of the banking sector in Azerbaijan is in the spotlight, Chairman of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) Taleh Kazimov said at today’s meeting of the parliament during the discussion of the bill “On Azerbaijan’s state budget for 2024,” Report informs.

Kazimov noted that currently the capital position in the sector is twice the minimum demand: “Entrepreneurs’ access to financial opportunities is expanding. Over nine months of this year, the loan portfolio of banks increased by 14%, and the volume of business loans by 11%.”

He added that business loans make up 54% of the total loan portfolio of banks: “The share of foreign currency loans has decreased to 19%, which is a historical minimum. The quality of the loan portfolio is satisfactory. The share of non-performing loans has decreased to 3.5% of the total loan portfolio. Confidence in the banking sector and the national currency has increased. Over the nine months of this year, household deposits in manats increased by 15.6% or by 1.1 billion manats ($647.058 million) and amounted to 8 billion manats ($4.705 billion).”