Lending suffers another blow in April

TIRANA, June 5 – Lending suffered another blow in April 2012 when it failed to grow for both businesses and individuals. Latest Bank of Albania data show total lending dropped by 0.11 percent or 577 million lek in April 2012 compared last March.
Year-on-year lending is estimated to have decelerated to 10.2 percent in April 2012 down from 13 percent in the final quarter of 2011.
Credit to businesses shrank by 275 million lek in April 2012 but was up 15.5 percent year-on-year. Credit to individuals also continues suffering, shrinking by 303 million lek compared to last March and continuing its downward trend. Credit to individuals fell by 3.3 percent year-on-year last April.
Central bank data show time deposits in Euro have grown by 30 million euros during the first four months of this year compared to Dec. 2011. Deposits in lek rose by 10.5 billion lek for the same period. Differently from loans 65 percent of which are in euro, deposits in the national currency lek hold a slight majority of 52 percent. Both individuals and businesses had their lending standards further tightened in the first quarter of 2012 despite demand for new loans reported to have considerable dropped, says the central bank in a lending survey. Bad loans rose to 20 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2012.