With lending to individual customers in full swing, overdue sums accumulated by the population bring a pleasant surprise, by suddenly stalling, after having risen fast over the previous months.
In late August, the overdue amounts of the loans to be repaid that the population accumulated totalled 484.1m RON (148m euros), up by only 1.6% month-on-month.
This is the slowest growth pace registered since September 2006, when the amount of overdue sums even registered a slight correction, according to NBR data.
Starting April, commercial banks no longer send to the Central Credit Register data on small loans (of below 20,000 euros) granted to the population.
Instead, the NBR gets this data from the Credit Bureau and the amount reflects overdue sums accumulated for all the loans, without the exposure ceiling being taken into account any longer.
The transfer from CRB data to data provided by the Credit Bureau (reporting all overdue sums) generates a leap along the data series: in April, the amount climbed by almost 17%, from 4% in March.
The slower pace at which overdue sums advanced in August comes into contrast with the strong increase in lending to the population registered because of the relaxed norms embraced by several major players.
Both consumer and mortgage lending rose in July and August by 7-8%, with annual paces thus accelerating to over 60%. As a matter of fact, overdue sums accumulated by the population maintain at a comfortable level, of only 0.86% of the total loans taken out (55.6bn RON).
In July, overdue sums had taken a significant leap, of almost 11%, so that it remains to be seen whether August represented only a slowdown or the beginning of a trend.
Amid the marginal fluctuation in August, the annualised growth pace of the population's overdue sums also slowed down, to 107%, from the record level of 119% posted in July.
According to the NBR data, the largest part of the overdue sums, of around 85%, is related to RON-denominated loans, with a volume of 416m RON (127m euros). However, these posted marginal growth, by 0.2%, in August.
Instead, overdue sums for euro-denominated loans leapt by over 11%, reaching the equivalent of 65.7m RON (20m euros).
The trend is natural as during the last two summer months the RON/EUR exchange rate climbed by around 8%, thus rendering efforts to pay instalments on foreign currency loans more difficult.
Overdue sums for dollar-denominated loans also posted a slight increase, to the equivalent of 1.88m RON, but these however account for a very small share in the total.
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