What sectors will bankers finance this year?

Banks have in the past year increased by 11.5% their portfolios of loans granted to the field of agriculture, the only sector of the economy that managed to still borrow money, while for the rest lending has been practically frozen. In late February, the volume of lending to agriculture reached 6.8bn RON (around 1.7bn euros), in line with NBR data. The weight of agriculture in the overall loan portfolio is still low, though, at around 2.7% of loans released by banks, against 8.5% in the case of constructions and 18.8% in the case of industry. The services sector, which attracted almost one third of financing, holds the biggest weight in overall loans. While they lent more to agriculture, banks last year and early this year directed most available funds to the public sector. Thus, loans aimed at the public administration in February rose by 28% from a year ago, to 12.4bn RON (some 3bn euros). In constructions, industry and services the amount of loans dropped by between 1 and 4.8%. In the following period, bankers expect to lend more to constructions as this field is likely to rebound after stalling for more than a year.