YEREVAN, JUNE 7, NOYAN TAPAN. By 2007 results, Armenia's financial sector assets/GDP ratio made 24%, and by this index Armenia is surpassed even by former Soviet and neighboring countries, the head of the USAID Armenian Financial Sector Deepening Project Robert Singletary said at the June 6 press conference. In his words, this fact shows that sums in circilation in the real sector of Armenian economy exceed those circulating through the country's financial market. Not announcing any figures, R. Singletary expressed an opinion that the amount of so-called "under pillow" sums is considerable in Armenia due to a low level of the population's trust in financial institutions and "old traditions" of managing financial affairs. At the same time he noted that in 2006-2007 the total amount of credits given to the population grew by 83%, mortgage crediting - by 170%, consumer crediting - by 60%. According to R. Singletary, this growth is conditioned by the fact that several banks have introduced innovations in their work. To recap, the former chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia Tigran Sargsian said that the country's population has cash of up to 2 billion dollars.

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