Flagging demand for loans from the population and from companiesis the reason why lending remains weak, and the solution needs tocome from the authorities, who could boost absorption of Europeanfunds.
"Perhaps the Central and Eastern European model has been tooaggressive, but it is not this model that collapsed, the crisis wastriggered by problems in the USA. There is no need for arevolution," says Federico Ghizzoni, head of UniCredit's operationsin Central and Eastern Europe.
He believes the exit from the crisis can be achieved only byreviving loan demand, because the supply is already there, but thisis the governments' job.
"Full absorption of European funds is absolutely necessary. Theycan contribute up to 2% of the annual growth of the Gross DomesticProduct."
Romania has almost 20 billion euros in European funds allocatedfor 2007-2013, but its absorption rate is one of the lowest, ataround 10%, according to the "CEE Banking: A new model out of thecrisis" study, authored by the UniCredit group. The Italians expect0.4% growth for Romania this year, and 3.4% in 2011.
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