Consumer lending accelerated in May due to lower interests for RON

Consumer lending accelerated considerably in May, posting the fastest growth of the past nine months. Consumer finance gained steam as early as the beginning of spring, after witnessing a significant slowdown late last year. In May, the volume of consumer loans climbed by almost 5%, exceeding for the first time the 37bn RON (11.31bn euros) mark. In absolute terms, the increase was by 1.75bn RON (over half a billion euros). Growth was triggered by RON loans which leapt by 1.11bn RON (almost two thirds of the increase of the overall volume). Foreign currency lending also posted a slight acceleration, with the monthly rate reaching 5.7%, from 3.6% in the previous month. However, the higher paces are partially due to the considerably smaller calculation basis. In late May, foreign currency lending amounted to the equivalent of 11.7bn RON (3.5bn euros), accounting, however, for less than a third in the overall volume of consumer lending. It is not clear whether the faster growth rate of lending will continue during summer months. Bankers consider the summer period as “weaker” for business, but in the past two years the summer months have been the best periods for consumer lending. After the rapid increases of recent years, the annualised expansion rate of consumer lending has slowed down almost continuously since the spring of 2006.