By May 1, 2008, net total assets of Georgian commercial banks (in current prices) grew 14.8% compared to the beginning of the year - a 1068.5 mln lari increase to a total of 8276.6 mln lari.

Starting from the beginning of the year, the banking sector's own funds (equity capital) have grown by 283.5 mln lari (19.3%) to equal 1754.6 mln lari, which makes up 21.2% of commercial banks' net total assets (compared to 20.4% at the beginning of the year). The growth of paid-in capital constituted 102.7 mln lari (22.6%). Compared to the beginning of the year, the number of foreign-controlled banks has increased from 12 to14 and their share in the banks' total equity capital increased by 4.3 basis points to 68.5%.

Incomes of active commercial banks grew 2.1 times year-on-year and equaled 498.8 mln lari.

In January-April commercial banks' net profit equaled 29.4 mln lari, which is 3.9 mln lari (i.e. 11.6%) lower than the indicator for the same period of last year.

The growth of crediting of the real sector of the economy facilitated the growth of interest incomes. As compared with the last year, this indicator has grown by 67.7% and made up 61.1% of total incomes.

Total value of commercial banks' expenditures constituted 454.8 mln lari in January-April, which is 2.3 times higher than the indicator for the same period of last year. The significant part of the growth of expenditures falls on the interests paid on the loans provided by non-resident banks and international financial organizations as well as on advertising, municipal charges and postal expenses.

The share of five banks having the largest assets within the total amount of the banking sector assets decreased from 80.4% at the beginning of the year to 78.9%.

Profitability of the banking sector assets (ROA) equaled 1.5% and profitability of capital (ROE) - 7.0% (compared to 2.8% and 13.9% respectively for the same period of last year).

Present statistical information is being published on the statistics headlines.