At the end of February 2008, the volume of lending of the national economy by commercial banks grew by 1.9 billion lari (69.3%) as compared to the same period of 2007 and exceeded 4.7 billion lari. More specifically, the volume of loans provided in the national currency grew 2.2 times and exceeded 1.5 billion lari, and the volume of loans in foreign currency grew by 53.1% and constituted 3.2 billion lari. At the same time, the currency makeup of loans has changed: 33% are now denominated in lari and 67% - in dollars (compared to 26% and 74% last year).

During the last year the volume of long-term loans has been increasing at a higher rate than the volume of short-term loans (70.3% as compared to 67.1%), and this indicator constituted 69.9% in the total volume of lending of the national economy instead of 69.5% at the end of February of the last year.

As for the structure of loans by sectors of economy, by the end of February 2008 commercial banks had already issued 868.4 million lari worth of national currency-denominated loans to legal entities (94.6% more than during the same period last year) and 2.1 billion lari worth of loans in foreign currency (37.9% more than during the same period last year).

In the reporting period the volume of lending has increased significantly in the sphere of agriculture, forestry and fishing, where this indicator has increased 2.8 times and constituted 61.1 million lari. The volume of lending has increased 1.7 fold in the sphere of education and equaled 8.7 million lari. This rapid growth notwithstanding, the share of these sectors in the total amount of lending is insignificant and remains at the level of 2.1 and 0.3%.

Out of the total volume of lending to legal persons, the biggest share falls on trade - 48.2%. During the last year the volume of loans provided for trade grew by 59.0% and exceeded 1.4 billion lari.

After trade, the second biggest share of loans falls on those provided to the industrial sectors - 17.9%, or 532.1 million lari, by March 1, 2008 (31.3% higher than the comparable figure a year before). Construction was next, with a 12.6% share (374.1 million lari and 77.7% year-on-year growth). Thus, 78.7% of the total volume of lending to legal entities falls only on three sectors - industry, construction and trade.

The volume of lending of physical entities has grown significantly during the reporting period (2.1 times) and exceeded 1.7 billion lari by March 1, 2008, which shows that individual entrepreneurship is stirring up.