The dollar remains the favourite currency on the crediting market, as dollar-denominated loans stood for 45.78 percent of the total at the end of February. Privately managed companies were granted the bulk of loans, while credits granted to natural persons ranked on the lowest position.
The population borrowed only 589 billion lei of the total 119,423 billion lei of loans whose value was more than 200 million lei each. According to specialists, one of the reasons for this situation, but not the only, is the high cost of getting a loan.
In the most fortunate situation, one can get a loan at about 50 percent interest rate for the lei-denominated loan and 12-15 percent for the dollar-denominated loans.
Everybody hopes the situation will improve, especially because, according to bankers, crediting costs are likely to decrease following the trends of interest rates on the international market.
Those who ask for a loan generally aim at short maturity, up to 12 months, as the economic uncertainty (the exchange rate and inflation rate evolution) are among the most frequent explanations. Consequently, more than 54.74 percent of the banking loans had a 12-month maturing period.
A share of 32.14 percent of the loans will mature between one and five years, while the rest of 13.15 percent are expected to mature in more than five years.
As a general trend, the foreign banks granted more loans, while the activity of Romanian banks posted a slight decrease.
As for the field of activity, the largest share of loans aimed at industry (53.34 percent), services (34.94 percent) and constructions (5.32 percent).
The data are supplied by the Banking Risks Office (CRB) within the National Bank of Romania (NBR). CRB is a body that monitors all the loans whose value exceeds 200 million lei each. CRB generally aims to better oversee the banking system and the loaning process in Romania.
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