Growth in non-governmental lending slowed to 26.3% last year in real terms. The bad side to this is that the slowdown occurred for ROL loans only, while growth in foreign currency loans picked up significant speed.
The volume of lending in foreign currency for 2004 increased by 56.9%. Calculated in ROL, the increase is only 51.3% due to the nominal appreciation of the domestic currency, which prevented it from being even higher.
At the same time the volume of loans in ROL increased by only 21.5% in nominal terms (11.1% in real terms). This means that non-governmental lending amounted to 418,031bn ROL (10.5bn euros) by the end of December, bringing the real pace of growth calculated in ROL to 26.3%.
Foreign currency loans accounted for more than 60% of all non-governmental funding provided by banks.
In absolute terms, lending volume had increased by 115,152bn ROL by the end of last year, compared with 124,152bn ROL in 2003.
As a result, the central bank achieved the goal it announced earlier in the year: to contain the rise in the lending by companies and the population at no more than 30% in real terms.
Non-governmental lending grew by 4.8% (4.2% in real terms) in December alone, against a 1.5% increase of the ROL component and a 7.1% increase of the foreign currency component (calculated in euros, foreign currency lending went up by 3.9%).
Although not the preferred currency for borrowing, the ROL was chosen over other currencies for savings: deposits by the population in ROL rose 36.2% to a total of 135,599bn ROL (3.4bn euros) last year; while foreign currency deposits rose only 13.6% to 98,023bn ROL (2.4bn euros). liviu.chiru@zf.ro
Pentru alte știri, analize, articole și informații din business în timp real urmărește Ziarul Financiar pe WhatsApp Channels
