Past due loans skyrocket in January to 155m euros

Past due banking loans recorded in January, accumulated both by individuals and companies, amounted to a record 155 million euros in January, according to data from the NBR (National Bank of Romania), double as much as the maximum value recorded in a month in 2008. Last year, there were months in which past due loans amounted to less than 100 million RON (27 million euros), putting the monthly average for past due loans at 148 million RON (40 million euros). In January, the value of new past due loans was practically four times as high as the 2008 average. The overall volume of past due loans climbed to over 3.5 billion RON (825 million euros) in the first month of this year, after last summer bankers watched as the volume of credits slightly exceeded 2 billion RON.