Foreign currency loans to population grew more than two-fold in 2007

The annual advance of the credits granted by banks to the Romanian population and companies accelerated to 60.45 in the last month of the year, the biggest rise being registered by the loans in hard currency for the population, which increased by134.4% in 2007, reads a BNR release

The non-governmental credit totalled 148.2 billion lei (41 billion euros) on 31 December. The advance was significantly higher than in the period November 2006 - November 2007, when the credits granted to the population and companies registered a 55.1% growth, the central bank shows.

The credits in lei granted to the population and companies advanced by 2.2% in December, as against the previous month (39.2% compared to December 2006), to 67.7 billion lei (equivalent to 18.75 billion euros), while the loans in hard currency increased by 7.5% (84% as against the last month of 2006), to 80.5 billion lei (equivalent to 22,3 billion euros).

The biggest increase in December was seen in hard currency loans granted to population - by 8.7%, as against the previous month, and by 134.4% as against December 2006 - to 37.9 billion lei (equivalent to 10,5 billion euros), while the credits in national currency to the population advanced by 2% as compared to November (and by 45.4% as against December 2006), to 33.6 billion lei (equivalent to 9,3 billion euros).

The credits in lei granted to companies totalled 34.14 billion lei (9.46 billion euros) at the end of the year, up 2,4% on November and 33.6 % on December 2006, and the loans in hard currency granted to companies totalled 42.53 billion lei (11.8 billion euros) at the end of last year, 6.5% more than at the end of previous month, and 54.4% above the level of December 2006.

The governmental credit (of the central administration, local administrations, social security system administrations) increased by 2.1% against the previous month, to 9.57 billion lei (equivalent to 2,65 billion euros). In comparison with the same period of the previous year, the governmental credit almost trebled in December 2007, an evolution reflected by a growth of 169.9% (153.3 % in real terms) as against the level at the end of 2006, the BNR report also shows.

Curierul National