Balkan bankers say world financial turmoil will limit effect on the region

SOFIA, Oct 4 – Central bank governors of the Balkan region convened last week in Bulgaria to discuss on the impact of the global financial crisis on their countries.
At the end of the meeting attended by Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia they agreed that the global financial crisis would have a limited effect on the region.
“Southeast European economies continue to demonstrate strength, strong economic growth and resilience to the deteriorating global financial and economic environment,” said a joint statement.
“Currently banks that have strong presence in the region have no direct exposure to markets which are under severe pressure,” the statement said.
No banks in the region owned securities of the type that caused problems in the U.S. but they also warned that the crisis was going to have an indirect impact on the region by raising the credit interest rates by an average of 1.5 percent.
Deposit guarantees were not discussed at the meeting but they said they would apply strict supervision of the banks.
“In light of the dynamic credit growth observed in many countries of the region, their supervisory authorities are monitoring closely liquidity conditions of banks and credit developments to safeguard the quality of the banks’ loan portfolio and financial stability,” the statement said.