NBR's measures take effect

The monetary policy measures taken by the NBR to temper the non-governmental lending growth have finally showed effects in February: the amount of loans taken by individuals and companies fell 0.1% in real terms, after having gone up by more than 4% in each of several months in a row. The stability of the exchange rates stimulated lending in foreign currency, though, so that its growth pace outran the speed of the ROL lending. The National Bank’s statistics show the banks had granted 314,189bn ROL’s worth in loans to individuals and legal entities by the end of February. The ROL loans were 0.6% higher than in January, while the foreign currency loans had progressed 0.5%. If calculated in euros, the foreign currency lending progressed by 2%, which trend points to a gradual replacement of the ROL funding with foreign currency loans, regarded as more affordable as long as the ROL interest cut is delayed. ZF