Overdue payments exceeded 10% of loan volume in four weakly developed counties

The crisis hit weakly developed counties and regions significantly dependent on one industry harder, with companies and individual customers in these areas finding it increasingly difficult to pay their bank instalments.

In Ialomița, for instance, the ratio of late payments in the total volume of loans granted by banks reached 12.3% at the end of August, up one and a half percentage point against the preceding month. In Bistrița-Năsăud, Galați and Suceava, overdue payments exceeded the volume of loans granted, while in Arad and Botoșani late payments were slightly below this threshold. The national average is 6.9%.
“The situation in Ialomița stems from the fact that many economic operators had problems because many entrepreneurs were not prepared well enough, or because they entered into partnership with companies that did not meet their commitments. The county is very weak economically because foreign capital inflows have been very low compared with other regions. There were also been big entities, especially in the agricultural products processing industry, which either cut back on their operations or went insolvent,” says the manager of the Slobozia branch of a big bank.