OREANDA-NEWS. January 27, 2009. Active lending to support the economy is one of the main areas of activity of the National Bank of Uzbekistan (NBU). More than 60% of its assets consist of credits. The volume of credit portfolio made up 2,105.4 billion soums as of 1 January 2009, the bank's press release says.

At this time, the National Bank of Uzbekistan for Foreign Economic Activity services 145 foreign credits on 110 investment projects for the total amount of US3.88 billion (in equivalent).

The bank signed a number of loan agreements with foreign banks on the projects aimed at the development of the agro-industrial complex, telecommunication and technology sectors, the financing of which will be conducted in the next few years.

NBU continues to lend to the real (manufacturing) sector of economy and priority areas, such as mortgage and consumer lending, providing young families, needy and other groups of population access to the bank's resources.

In 2008 the National Bank issued loans for the total amount of some 969 billion soums, including loans in national currency totaling 724.7 billion soums, which is almost the double of the result of 2007 (412.3 billion soums), and loans in foreign currency for US177.3 million (US124.3 million in 2007).