Armenia Benchmarking Report 2004

The paper describes Armenia's background in the last decade.

• One third of the country was devastated in the earthquake in 1988;
• Disintegration of the Soviet Union led to the collapse of its industrial base and markets;
• War with Azerbaijan plunged the country into economic darkness;
• However, over the past three years, the Armenian economy's growth has outpaced that of every other Newly Independent State (NIS), with an average real GDP growth of over 10%.

Microfinance has evolved as a means of reducing poverty, improving living standards, and creating jobs through improving access to affordable financial services. This section:

• Analyzes the policy and economic environment which led to the evolution of microfinance in Armenia;
• States that MFIs have developed a notable client base and a sizeable portfolio in a relatively short period of time; however, the dissemination has not been well distributed across Armenia.

Performance analysis of non bank MFIs

This section analyzes non bank MFIs using the base for comparison as the microfinance market in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, since Armenian operations are similar to operations in these regions. The analysis is along the following parameters:

• Institutional size;
• Outreach;
• Financial structure;
• Financial performance;
• Efficiency;
• Risk and liquidity.