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.