NBS: Bank lending declines six quarters in a row

BELGRADE - Total bank lending to corporates and households continued to decline in the first quarter of this year, which is the sixth quarter in a row, the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) has announced.

The degree of loan dinarization and the degree of deposit dinarization decreased in the first quarter of 2014, while the share of the dinar debt in total government debt rose, reads the NBS latest report entitled

A new subsidized corporate lending scheme could have a positive effect on the dinarization of Serbia's financial system, the central bank said.

The degree of dinarization of the Serbian financial system, measured by the share of dinar loans in total corporate and household loans, amounted to 26.6 percent by end of the first quarter, and relative to the end of the previous year, this indicator dipped by 0.2 percentage points, reads the NBS report.

In terms of constant exchange rate, the degree of dinarisation dropped by 0.1 percentage points to 26.7 percent.

Total bank lending to corporates and households continued to decline in the first quarter (the sixth quarter in a row).

At the end of March 2014, the lending reached RSD 1,733.5 billion, which is 2.9 percent down compared to the end of the previous year.

In the first quarter, the banks increased corporate lending standards, and owing to the absence of major capital investments, requests for loans declined so the lending went down by 4.9 percent relative to the previous quarter, the report reads.

Photo Tanjug, M. Jelesijevic

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