Banks shouldn’t be afraid of issuing loans in GEL
By Tea Mariamidze
Tuesday, June 21
The Vice-President of the National Bank of Georgia (NBG), Archil Mestvirishvili, presented an annual report of the bank's activities to the Budget and Finance Committee of Parliament on June 20.
Mestvirishvili reported that in the first half of 2015, the inflation rate was low but it increased, reaching 4.9% by the year's end.
According to him, during 2015 the prices of imported goods have increased, including medicines, which was especially reflected in more expensive health services.
Mestvirishvili also responded to the dollarization problem raised by member of the Free Democrats Davit Onoprishvili, who said that customers are denied loans in GEL, and it should be possible to take a loan up to 100,000 GEL.
According to the NBG's Vice President, dollarization is a complex problem, and in 2015 NBG began to reduce the dollarization of loans.
”Our goal is to make GEL loans become more attractive; the bank should not be afraid to issue a loan in GEL, and the borrower should not worry about receiving loan in GEL,” he stated, and added that the NBG and the government are working on additional measures regarding the issue.
Moreover, Mestvirishvili spoke about online loans, and stated that the government and the National Bank are working on a joint legislative project in order to regulate this field in the future.
“This package will be introduced in Parliament when it is discussed by the government, and we will present it together,” he added.
