Non-government loans fail to recover: annual decline deepens to 8.2%

Banks did not show signs of seeking to resume lending, with the volume of non-government loans falling by almost two percent against the end of 2009, whilst savings of the population and of companies are starting to weaken. Only governmental loans climbed in January, by almost 6%, against the end of December.

The volume of loans granted to the population and to companies fell by 8.2% in real terms at the end of January compared with the similar period of last year, to 199.3 billion, whilst solvent demand remains low, and banks are still cautious amid a deterioration of the credit portfolio, according to data from the NBR (National Bank of Romania). The decline in real terms against December amounts to 1.9%. RON-denominated loans fell by 8.9% in the last year, while euro-denominated loans saw a slight rise, by 0.7%. Only companies increased their volume of loans, whilst the population continues to cut its debts to banks.