Overdue loans near 10bn RON

Individuals and firms had by February built up bank overdue
loans of 9.23 billion RON (2.25bn euros), up 5.2% month-on-month
and double the level reached in the same month of last year,
according to NBR data. The weight of overdue loans in overall loans
climbed to 4.6% last month, from 4.37% in January and a little
above 2% in February 2009. Overdue loan growth slowed down from
previous months, but analysts do not expect loan portfolio
stabilisation before the second half of the year. “The good news is
that overdue loans posted more sluggish growth. But they will
inevitably increase at least by mid-year given the rising
unemployment, the main factor of influence at the moment,” comments
Ionut Dumitru, chief-economist of Raiffeisen Bank. The biggest
problems are registered in the case of RON-denominated loans, with
the weight of overdue credits on this segment hitting 6.1% in
February from 5.8% in January. Banks’ RON portfolios are dominated
by unsecured consumer loans. At the same time, overdue foreign
currency loans remained flat at around 3.5% on exchange rate
stabilisation.