ZAGREB, March 4 (Hina) - Last December saw the continuation of a strong credit volume among commercial banks in Croatia, while the whole 2002 was characterised by an increase in loans granted the non-banking sector, especially
citizens, which last year grew by almost 13 billion kuna (EUR1.7 billion).
ZAGREB, March 4 (Hina) - Last December saw the continuation of a
strong credit volume among commercial banks in Croatia, while the
whole 2002 was characterised by an increase in loans granted the
non-banking sector, especially citizens, which last year grew by
almost 13 billion kuna (EUR1.7 billion). #L#
Last year loan growth rates were high and consistent. Loans granted
citizens grew by 43 and those to companies by 22.7 percent, the
Croatian National Bank said in a bulletin on Tuesday.
The annual growth rate of loans issued to the non-banking sector
last December stood at 30.5 percent, while in December 2001 it was
25.5 percent.
On the monthly level, loans to citizens last December went up 2.5
percent from November and those to companies 1.8 percent.
The amount of loans granted citizens in the domestic currency stood
at almost 43 billion kuna (EUR5.7 billion) last December as against
a little over 30 billion (EUR3.9 billion) at the end of 2001.
Domestic currency loans to companies at the end of last year
amounted to 36.7 billion kuna (EUR4.8 billion) as against 31
billion in December 2001. Loans to companies in both the domestic
and foreign currencies last December stood at 47 billion kuna
(EUR6.2 billion) as against 38.3 billion (EUR5 billion) at the end
of 2001.
In January the central bank adopted a series of decisions to curb
the growth of loans to the non-banking sector, which are
increasingly relying on foreign debts.
(EUR1 = 7.6 kuna)
(hina) ha