Lending up 3% in March

The growth-rate of non-governmental lending exceeded 3% in March, after having increased by just 0.5% in February. The prudential norms imposed by the National Bank on consumer and mortgage lending have proved to be acceptable to commercial banks. Non-governmental lending increased 3.5% (3% in real terms) to 325,097bn ROL in February and March 2004, NBR’s monthly report shows. The increase in nominal terms was of 11,187bn ROL. Foreign currency lending continued to increase at the expense of lending in ROL in March. ROL credits rose 0.6%, while foreign currency credits rose 5.9%. If calculated in euros, foreign currency lending went up 3.6%. The decision to take out foreign currency loans has so far turned out to be sensible, considering that the ROL has gained 1.7% against the euro since the beginning of the year, and rates of interest charged by banks are not showing any signs of decline in the near future. Compared with the end of March 2003, non-governmental lending increased 65.2% (46.1% in real terms). ZF