“The political environment continues to affect loan demand from companies, and, from this point of view, the recovery will be slow. Of course, the level of interest rates is an important factor, but I believe that loan applications will also be influenced by what will happen locally and internationally,” Dan Pascariu, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of UniCredit Ţiriac Bank, said.
Data provided by the National Bank of Romania (BNR) indicates that corporate foreign currency loans rose 1.4 percent compared to July and 18 percent compared to August 2008, to €13.9 billion. On the lei-denominated loan segment, corporate loans fell 0.3 percent, to RON 40.3 billion.
“In August there was improvement, both on the corporate loan and the deposit segments. We witnessed a series of changes on this market, as the very high rates until now did not allow companies to initiate certain projects. But as of September 2008 we witnessed a continuous reduction in corporate loan rates, and this trend will continue in the near future,” Chief Economist of UniCredit Ţiriac Bank, Rozalia Pal, said. The average interest rate on new euro loans granted to companies by Romanian banks was 6.31 percent in August, according to BNR data, while the average rate on lei-denominated loans fell to 15.69 percent in August, from a peak of 21.19 percent in January 2009. “A strong rebound in lending is unlikely to occur in the near future.” Dan Constantinescu, Chief Sales Officer of UniCredit Leasing, said.
