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Bank assets up 14% in Azerbaijan

19 January 2010 17:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Elnur Huseynguluyev - APA-ECONOMICS. In the face of the global financial crisis, total assets of Azerbaijan-based banks increased by 14%, loans â€“ by 17%, deposits - by 23%, and capital by 18% in 2009, said Elman Rustamov, chairman of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan.

According to him, the total assets of banks were $13 billion dollars in the pre-crisis economic growth.

"The Central Bank had taken several preventive measures before the crisis. The main task is to limit external borrowing by banks. Many countries failed to do it in time. The level of their external debt reached about 50-100% of GDP. During the crisis, these monies were immediately withdrawn. Today, such couintries can not normalize the situation not only in its financial sector, but also in the macroeconomy as a whole", said chairman of the Central Bank.

He noted that the external debt of Azerbaijan was held at 5% of GDP.

"We imposed an additional tax and this measure suspended borrowing by making it more expensive,â€ he underscored.